PROTECTION OF CIVIL RIGHTS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28702, 27 September 1958, Page 11

PROTECTION OF CIVIL RIGHTS

Public Servants Object To Legislation

“One of the things we particularly objected to was the surreptitious manner in which the clause sanctioning the use of force by civil wardens in searching persons entering naval shore establishments was inserted in the draft of the Navy Bill,” the chairman of the Canterbury branch of the Public-Service Association (Mr T. P. Hogan) said yesterday. “The Minister for Defence (Mr Connolly) had assured a delegation from the Navy base sub-sec-tion of the association that he was not in agreement with this authority being given to wardens, and the national executive has also criticised the Government s actions,” Mr Hogan said. “Public servants object to this erosion of their natural right to personal inviolability, especially as power of search already exists for uniformed policemen on duty in naval establishments.” The proposal in the Statutes Amendment Bill to strengthen the powers of the police to arrest individuals who, in the opinion of the police, were obstructing a footpath or roadway, had also perturbed the association, which considered that even more important was the proposal that in any case of that kind the onus should rest with the defendant to prove that he was not unlawfully obstructing, Mr Hogan said. The association felt that public servants as well as other citizens should resist such inroads into elementary civil rights.

S.I.M.U. Officers

Mr G. W. Ferens (Otago) is the new president of the South Island Motor Union. Other officers elected were: vicepresidents, Messrs W. M. Richardson (North Otago) and E. C. Champion (Canterbury); immediate past-president, Mr R. Twyneham (Canterbury); executive. Messrs W. R. Martyn (Nelson), R. V. Bythell (Marlborough), E. C. Champion (Canterbury), L. A. France (Pioneer), Robert Wilson (South Canterbury), J. C. Kirkness (North Otago), T. E. V. Turpin (Otago), and H. C. MacKenzie (Southland); liaison officer, Mr R. O’Shea (Wellington).