The First}Woman Speaker in Legislation's World Seattle, Wash., Jan. 7—The position of Speaker of the House in the British Columbia Provincial Legislative Assembly, which was offered yesterday to Miss Mary Ellen Smith of Vancouver carries with it a woman's privilege of the last word." This was insisted upon to-day by Mrs. Smith.
Mrs. Smith will be the first woman Speaker of a__ legislative body in the world. Mrs, Smith first entered British Columbia. politics as a silent partner of her husband in 1894 and worked side by side with bim until his death in 1917, when he was Minister of Finance in the Brewster Administration. The death of the husband, Ralph Smith, brought Mrs. Smith into prominence and the next bye-election she took her husband's place as Representative from Vancouver.
Mrs. Smith has done much toward improving legislation for women, and returning officers in the recent election state that many ballots were taken from the ballot boxes with Mes. Smith's name on alone.
Among the privileges accorded the Speaker of the House are those of keeping her hat on in the Chamber, the casting of a deciding vote on a tio ballot, the right to extend priority of speech and the title of Honourable, the mouthpiece of the Assembly in its Address to the Throne. British history bristles with instances of the Speaker defying the Crown under the protection given its office. Mrs. Smith will be Madam Speaker, have her own quarters in tht House and her own staff, and her advances to the Assembly will be heralded with "Make way for the Speaker," all the other members and visitors rising to do honour to her entry.
While Mrs. Smith was a member of the House last year the Speaker was called upon to decide upon whether the woman member should remove her hat when addressing the Chair, and decided that all heads must be uncovered when addressing the; Speaker.—"New York Times."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.