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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
Newfoundland before 1934 had a Governor, a responsible Executive Council, and an appointed Legislative Council. The Governor “with the advice and consent” of the Executive Council, summoned and called together the General Assembly, and “the persons thereupon duly elected to be members of the said Assembly,” before their sitting, took the Oath of Allegiance. The Governor from time to time prorogued the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly, and also from time to time dissolved the House of Assembly. Laws were made by the Governor “with the advice and consent of the said Legislative Council and Assembly.”
From February 16, 1934, to March 31, 1949, Newfoundland was ruled by a Commission of Government. Upon the union with Canada in 1949, the constitution of the legislature as it existed immediately prior to February 16, 1934, continued as the constitution of the legislature of the province of Newfoundland, except in so far as it related to the Legislative Council. Laws are now “enacted by the Lieutenant-Governor and the House of Assembly” only.
Prior to 1928 the Assembly contained thirty-six members. In that year (by an act passed in 1925) the number was raised to forty, but in 1932 it was reduced to twenty-seven. In 1949 it rose to twenty-eight, and in 1956 (by an act passed in 1955) it once again reached thirty-six. Now, by an amendment adopted in 1962, the House of Assembly consists, from the dissolution of the General Assembly in October, of forty-two members.
This is a slightly revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association at McMaster University, Hamilton, on June 8, 1962.
1 Letters patent constituting the office of Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Island of Newfoundland and its Dependencies, 28 March, 1876, IV, V, and Instructions to the Governor, 28 March, 1876, XII, Revised Statutes of Newfoundland, 1952, IV, 2867, 2872.Google Scholar
2 B.N.A. Act, 1949, Schedule (Terms of Union, Dec. 11, 1948, 14).
3 Govt, of Newfoundland, Eleventh Census of Newfoundland and Labrador, 1945, I, Table 18. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Ninth Census of Canada, 1951, I, Table 38. Idem, Census of Canada, 1961, Population, By Specified Religious Denominations, (Advance Report No. AP-8, 1962).
4 Nfld., Census, 1945, I, Table 53.Google Scholar
5 Nfld., 52 Victoria c. 17, “Of the Representation in the Legislative Assembly,” June 1, 1889. Nfld., Census, 1945, I, Table 18.Google Scholar
6 John's, St. Daily News, 05 7, 1923, 4.Google Scholar
7 For biographies of this period see R. Hibbs, ed. and publisher, Who's Who in and from Newfoundland, 1927 (St. John's).
8 Halfyard, W. W., “Report on the Census of Newfoundland and Labrador, 1921,” tables III, VIII, XI, Census of Newfoundhnd and Labrador, 1921, Table I, (St. John's, 1923), viii, xiv, xvi, xvii.Google Scholar
9 Nfld., Proceedings of the House of Assembly, 1925 (The Evening Telegram, Ltd.), 551 Google Scholar, Colonial Secretary (J. R. Bennett), March 30. Hereafter Proceedings.
10 Ibid., 6, Speech from Throne, Feb. 18, 1925.
11 Ibid., 207, March 3, 1925.
12 Nfld., 15 Geo. V c. 8, An Act to amend an Act entitled “Of the House of Assembly,” April 3, 1925
13 Proceedings, 1925, 208–211, Prime Minister, March 3.
14 Ibid., 556, 562, March 30, 1925.
15 Nfld., 22 Geo. V c. 7, An Act to amend Chapter 2 of the Consolidated Statutes (Third Series) entitled “Of the House of Assembly,” Journal of the House of Assembly of Newfoundland in the Fourth Session of the Twenty-eighth General Assembly (St. John's, 1932), 228 Google Scholar, Speech from the Throne, April 30, 1932.
16 Department of Public Health and Welfare, Tenth Census of Nfld. and Labrador, 1935, I (St. John's, 1937), 18–19, Table 10.Google Scholar
17 Ibid., 12, Table 4.
18 Hibbs, , Who's Who in and from Newfoundland (Third Edition), 1937 (St. John's).Google Scholar
19 Nfld., Census, 1943, I, Table 19.Google Scholar
20 Nfld., National Convention Act, May 21, 1946, no. 16, First Schedule, (38).
21 Nfld., Census, 1945, I, Table 2.Google Scholar
22 Nfld., National Convention Act, May 21, 1946, no. 16, s. 8.
23 Nfld., Referendum Act, April 27, 1948, no. 9, s. 6.
24 N. Short, Chief Electoral Officer, Report of the Chief Electoral Officer Relating to the First Poll of the Referendum Held June 3rd, 1948.
25 Idem, Report of the Chief Electoral Officer Relating to the Second Poll of the Referendum, Held July 22, 1948.
26 Normandin, G. Pierre, ed., Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1953 (Ottawa), 558 Google Scholar
27 The House of Assembly (Amendment) Act, 1955.
28 Proceedings, 1955 (St. John's), I, 467, 04 5.Google Scholar
29 Ibid., 552–3, April 12, 1955.
30 Ibid., 583, April 12, 1955.
31 Ibid., 588, April 12, 1955.
32 Ibid., 233–4, March 30, 1955.
33 Ibid., 469, April 5, 1955.
34 Short, N., Chief Electoral Officer, “Report on Provincial General Election, 1956,” Nfld. Gazette (St. John's), 01 15, 1957, 4–5.Google Scholar
35 Twenty-second General Election, 1953, Report of the Chief Electoral Officer (Ottawa, 1954), xiii–xiv, 830, 832.Google Scholar
36 Proceedings, 1955, I, 430, 04 5.Google Scholar
37 Ibid., 560, April 12, 1955.
38 Ibid., 577, April 12, 1955.
39 Ibid., 579, April 12, 1955.
40 Ibid., 591–592, April 12, 1955.
41 Ibid., 595, April 12, 1955.
42 Ibid., 438, April 5, 1955.
43 Ibid., 569, April 12, 1955.
44 Ibid., 601, April 12, 1955.
45 Ibid., 602, April 12, 1955; 677, April 14, 1955.
46 N. Short, Chief Electoral Officer, Report on Provincial General Election, 1959.
47 No. 81 of 1962.
48 Second Reading, Committee of the Whole, and Third Reading, March 16, 1962.
49 Proceedings, 1955, I, 232–233, 03 30.Google Scholar