Future Of Privy Council As Last Court Of Appeal

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29179, 13 April 1960, Page 16

Future Of Privy Council As Last Court Of Appeal

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, April 12. New Zealand Judges in the future might not be prepared to have appeals against their decisions heard by the Privy Council in England, said Mr Justice Turner, senior Puisne Judge in Auckland, in an address to justices of the peace tonight. His honour said that as the spirit of nationality stirred here, as it was stirring, citizens themselves would be less and less willing to submit appeals to a board in London whose members “had not smelt New Zealand air” and who knew little of the country. New Zealand, he said, was one

of the few old-established Dominions which still sent its appeals to the Privy Council. He said he thought Ceylon was the next senior member of the Commonwealth which still went to the Privy Council. “In my respectful submission,” his Honour said, “the council will have to undergo a process of evolution if it is to survive. I think it will have to have Commonwealth Judges sitting on it." That, he said, was the pill, and he doubted whether their Lordships would swallow it. If the English Judges were not prepared to have Commonwealth Judges they would have to face the possibility that the Commonwealth Judges would no longer be prepared to have appeals heard by a board in London.