Before the House rises I would like to point out it was already arranged that we would meet to-morrow at half-past eleven, and that the first business would be to deal with the report of your Committee and the recommendations they made with regard to the coming elections. I ask the House to allow me to make one slight change. It is a matter of very great personal convenience to the Deputy Chairman that he should be able to dispose of his motion for the Second Reading of his Bill earlier in the day, and as that will occupy only a few minutes, I will put it first on the Order Paper; the second order will be the matter of dealing with these recommendations. As to that, might I say, personally I hold the view, after looking into it, that the time provided for the handing in of proposals was very short. Of course it had to be short in view of the pressure that has been put upon us, but in as much as owing to the important private engagements of Senators, we will not be able to meet next week until Thursday, I do not see any reason why the time for handing in these proposals should not be extended to Thursday. That would give from Friday to Thursday, and I think that that would provide possibly as much time as would be reasonably required.
Then there is another suggestion that I want to make, and I want Senators to turn it over in their mind. The form of the proposal contains, as part of the form, the consent of the candidates proposed. The fact of that being on the form will involve handing it about, and passing it from the Senator who is nominator to the candidate, and will involve delay. I intend to suggest to the House to-morrow that there should be an alternative—that is to say, that a candidate may be at liberty to send his consent in writing, direct to my office, so as to get rid of the necessity of having to send the actual proposal form which he might not do if the Senator proposing him was at one end of the Free State and he at the other, and which would involve considerable delay.
