§ (9.0.) On the Order for going into Committee of Supply,
§ MR. EDMUND ROBERTSON (Dundee), as a point of order, asked the Speaker's ruling on the question whether a Motion for going into Supply should be put from the Chair, seeing that within the sense of Standing Order 56 this was going into Supply for the first time. He did not know that it would give rise to any debate, but as the present procedure was admittedly exceptional and unprecedented, it was desirable to have a ruling upon it. Standing Order 56 prescribed that whenever Committee of Supply stood as the Order of the Day the Speaker should leave the Chair-without putting any Question, unless on first going into Supply on the Army, Navy and Civil Service Estimates respectively. He submitted that. Supply having been closed and having been reopened by the Resolution of the House 211 on the preceding evening, they were now going into Supply on the Civil Service Estimates for the first time in the sense of the Standing Order, and that consequently the question ought to be put from the Chair.
§ MR. SPEAKERI have considered the question, and I have come to the conclusion that the present exceptional occasion is not going into Committee of Supply for the first time in the sense contemplated by the Standing Order. I cannot twice in the same session leave the Chair for the first time.