PETITION TO PARLIAMENT

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29334, 13 October 1960, Page 14

PETITION TO PARLIAMENT

Second Chamber, Constitution (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, October 12. A petition tor a written constitution and a second chamber, sponsored by the Constitutional Society, will be presented in Parliament tomorrow. It contains more than 11,000 signatures collected by the society in a week. Mr A. F. Manning, the society’s chief executive officer, said tonight that the society would continue its efforts and present another petition with more signatures later. "The Constitutional Society considers that both parties underestimate the wishes of the people for reforms which will give them greeter protection than they now possess against the growth of bureaucratic control." said- Mr Manning. "This belief is supported by the reports of members all over the country that in a longer campaign the total number of signatures could have been multiplied many times." The society had answers to the various doubts spread by politicians. The written constitution would not suffer from undue rigidity, but it would set out the basic rights of the people in a way that would prevent the State from infringing them. The second chamber of Parliament would be elected in such a manner that it would be completely representative and democratic, and would perform its true constitutional function of revising legislation in as non-party an atmosphere as possible.