"DOTH HEREBY MAKE THE FOLLOWING..."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 290, 7 December 1943, Page 2

"DOTH HEREBY MAKE THE FOLLOWING..."

TN the half-forgotten days when Labour, in the cool shades of Opposition, was vocal with much scolding, a favourite topic was the denunciation of government by Order-in-Council. To listen to the pundits of the party in those years was to go away convinced that, were they ever to achieve the Treasury benches, they would submit everything—or nearly everything—to-.the vote of Parliament. A few trifles, maybe, might properly be dealt with by regulations, but for the rest the will cf the people, expressed by their elected representatives, should prevail. In the light of what has happened since the war, all the acid vapourings of those years are only a bad joke—sound and fury, signifying nothing. Entrenched in office, the Labour Government does almost everything by regulation. Is it conscription that the country shall have? Do it by issuing a regulation! Shall the school leaving age be raised? An Order-in-Council will turn the trick! Nothing is too big or too small. In consequence, the regulations issued since the'war began now stand exactly a foot high. By contrast, the statutes of the same period are contained in neat, sylph-like volumes. A cursory glance at the alphabetical index of titles and subject matter of these regulations convinces anyone that the Government's lust for power by Order-in-Council knows no bounds. From advertisements to ' wool purchases the range of matters dealt With is bewildering, in its protean scope. Every aspect of our national life is patterned and ordered by regulation to an extent which is beyond the full comprehension of the legal mind, let alone that of the all too apathetic man in the street. The plea that New Zealand is at war, and that the Government cannot wait for Parliament, is vain, since a great number of the regulations have not the remotest connection with war. All this is a negation of the democratic principle for which the young men of our armed forces overseas are fighting. It is a surrender of the powers of Parliament to the will of a small, inner circle, constituting a gross abuse of privilege which New Zealand should not tolerate.