Original Court decision 'vindicated’

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 4

Original Court decision 'vindicated’

By TOM BRIDGMAN NZPA Washington The former Prime Minister, Sir Wallace Rowling, said yesterday he was “delighted” with the Privy Council decision judging him not guilty of negligence in the Takaro Properties case.

The original High Court decision had been vindicated, he said. Sir Wallace, now the New Zealand Ambassador to the United States, said that he was particularly pleased because the original decision to reject an application for an injection of Japanese capital into the ailing resort in 1974 was made on the basis of legislation which had been one of his own initiatives.

“There is an implication there I didn’t know what my own legislation was about — which I find very quaint,” he said. The fact that the Privy Council had agreed he did not misrepresent what he believed to be the law “is a matter of personal satisfaction to me,” Sir Wallace said. The Takaro Properties

appeal could be one of the last big New Zealand cases to go before the Privy Council, because the Government is taking steps to remove that appeal avenue for New Zealanders.

Sir Wallace had no comment on whether that should be done. “In view of the finding having just come out I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment on that,” he said.