Legislative Council For Nauru Soon

By a Staff Writer

A Nauru Legislative Council will be inaugurated in late January, with a majority of Nauruan elected members.

T EGISLATION clearing the way for the Council will be intro duced into the Australian Parliament in November, and council elections are expected to be held on Nauru in early January.

Present plans are for the new council to be officially opened by the Australian Governor-General, Lord Casey.

Establishment of the Legislative Council follows long agitation by the Nauru Local Government Council, supported by recommendations from a UN mission which visited the island earlier this year.

Details of the council have been worked out in recent months in a series of conferences in Canberra and on Nauru. There will also be an executive council.

The Legislative Council will con sist of 15 members—the Admin istrator as president, five official mem bers and nine elected. Members will hold office for three years, and elections will be by adult franchise— in the same way as the present councillors are elected. Members will not receive salaries.

The Legislative Council will not have power to make ordinances affecting defence, external affairs or the phosphate industry. Power of disallowance will be in the hands of the Governor-General.

The council will meet not less than once every three months.

For the time being anyhow, the Nauru Local Government Council is to continue in existence when the Legislative Council is established.

Inauguration of the council does not mean that the Nauruans have put aside their demands for independence for Nauru.

They have previously asked both Australia and UN to set January 31, 1968, as a target date for independ ence, and they consider the council to be a step in this direction. Presum ably they will use the new council to give voice to their independence aim.

A party of parliamentarians and other official visitors is expected to fly from Australia for the official opening ceremony in a chartered air craft. Nauru, 2,200 miles north-east of Sydney, has no regular air services.