CROWN AT LAW

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21449, 15 April 1935, Page 10

CROWN AT LAW

"ANOMALOUS POSITION" ABOLITION OF PREROGATIVES ADVOCATED '"The Crown is in a privileged position when suing or being sued and the remedies of a litigant against it are archaic and quite unsuited to modern conditions," said Mr A. F. Wright, in an address to the Canterbury College Law Students' Association on Saturday evening. Mr Wright's subject was "The Crown as Litigant," and he said he had chosen it because the remarkable extensions of State activities were making it of increasing importance in New Zealand. "The procedure when the Crown is suing or being sued is governed by petition of right going back very many years. There has been agitation in England for between 70 and 30 years to have the procedure altered. With the procedure unaltered, a Government department is able to avail itself of many prerogatives and privileges which, however desirable they may have been once, are an anomaly for present conditions.

"New Zealand has made some alteration to the law governing the procedure, but the alterations have not gone far enough and the old principle exists. Investigation by Committee "In 1920, an influential committee was set up by Lord Birkenhead, as Lord Chancellor of England, to report on the whole question. The committee was later directed to draft a bill on the assumption that litigation by the Crown should proceed in the same way, with certain safeguards, as between subject and subject. The committee reported that it was strongly in favour of alteration, but has not been proceeded with, .mere has been the strongest criticism from eminent jurists, from 'The Times,' from the Federated Chambers of Commerce in the British Empire, and, notably, from Professor J. H. Morgan, of London University, who dealt with the matter exhaustively in an introductory chapter to Dr. Robinson's work, 'Public Authorities and Legal Liabilities.' "In Australia since 1903, litigation by a subject against the Crown has been dealt with in the main as between subject and subject, and the Royal prerogatives which the State departments, particularly the trading departments, had, may no longer be invoked. So Australia has led the Empire in a most important legal reform.

"The Associated Chambers of Commerce ol New Zealand have for

10 years or more persistently tated for reform. The Government gave an assurance recently that the procedure would receive attention and a bill to give effect to alterations has been drawn bv Mr R. L. Zimsnof Auckland. The bill lias receivea the approval of the New Zealana Law Society and of the Chamber of Commerce, but it lias not been introduced to Parliament. It is ie* that Government trading d j\P a "" ments should be treated as orc " n ?*;f trading corporations and be subjec to the laws that private concern* are subject to. It is also felt tn the privileges which State " e ments have should no longer est • Some of the reforms, for \vfii there has been such persistent ag* tat ion in England, have been rr.a under the Crown Suits much remains to be done. This p ticular reform is long overdue is daily becoming more because of the extending of the State into the business of the Dominion."