CHAP. V] THE PRIVILEGES AND PROCEDURE 469 
The Presidents and Speakers are all paid salaries as are 
Chairmen of Committees, and so hold office until successors 
are appointed : in all cases they hold office until they resign 
or are removed by a vote of the House in which they preside, 
or by the Governor in those cases in which the appointment 
rests in his hands. The post of Speaker is not by convention 
a permanent one as in England : it is always open to elect a 
new Speaker for a new Parliament. Each House has its 
officers, who are not ordinary public servants,and who in some 
cases can only be removed by a special process. In Victoria 
in 1910 a dispute arose because the Governor in Council 
declined to accept the recommendation of the President of 
the Legislative Council for an appointment, and in revenge 
the Upper House adjourned for a week as a mode of protest. 
The curious position of the Speaker or President is exem- 
plified by the difference in procedure between the Parliaments 
of certain States and the procedure in the United Kingdom. 
The British practice is normally followed on the meeting of a 
new Parliament, but in Tasmania the practice of issuing a com- 
mission prior to the election of a President was abandoned 
in 1884, and the position laid down that the election should 
take place before any communication from the throne was 
made. This plan is generally followed in Canada also as 
regards the Speaker.! 
One point regarding the Legislatures is of interest, namely 
the fact that owing to their small size the Speaker has had 
on several occasions to give a casting vote. The principles on 
which he should give such a vote cannot be said to be in any 
way fixed : in the case of a vote of non-confidence in minis- 
ters in 1877 the Speaker of the House of Assembly of South 
Australia gave his vote against the Ministry on the ground 
which hedeclared healways followed, not to support a Ministry 
which was not in a majority when a vote of non-confidence 
was moved against it.2 On the other hand, in the same year 
Sir George Grey’s Ministry was upheld in New Zealand by 
a vote of the Speaker in the case of a similar motion, a step 
! Of. Munro, Constitution of Canada, pp. 47, 112. See Tasmania Parl, 
Pap., 1909, No. 14. The Assembly follows the older usage. 
* House of Assembly Votes, 1877, p. 236 ; cf. ibid., 1871, p. 226.