BROADCASTS NOT PERMITTED

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 127, 22 February 1939, Page 10

BROADCASTS NOT PERMITTED

Freedom Association’s Request CRITICISM OF ACTS OF GOVERNMENT Undermining Of Courts’ Authority Alleged Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, February 21. A request by the New Zealand Freedom Association lor broadcasting facilities to deliver a series of addresses surveying actions of the' Government, which, it is Claimed, have successively weakened and even undermined the authority of the courts of justice has been refused by the director of the National Broadcasting Service, Professor J. Shelley. The organizer of the association, Professor R. M. Algie, said that this decision meant that the Labour Government had established and intended to assert a complete dictatorship ox’er the air. The association’s request was made, he added, following the Government's decision to the effect that the Bureau of Importers was to be denied the ordinary privilege of an appeal to the Full Court by originating summons for an authoritative decision as to the validity or otherwise of the import control regulations. In his letter to Professor Shelley Professor Algie said he desired to stress the fact that the addresses would be educative in nature and entirely free from party politics. They would take the form of historical, accurate, trenchant but fair criticism of the policy which so clearly threatened the security of the administration of justice in New Zealand. The material for the addresses would be derived entirely from the contents of the Statute Books. Several days later a reply was received from Professor Shelley in which it was stated that after careful consideration they could not accede to the request of the association for broadcasting facilities. Effect of Decision. "Though the broadcasting service is a public utility, and though it is maintained by funds contributed by private individuals, nevertheless the people who thus pay for the service are to be allowed to listen to no addresses except those which it suits the Government to permit them to hear,” Professor Algie stated. “Freedom of discussion is therefore at an end so far as this avenue of expression is concerned.” It happened that the addresses which were offered to the broadcasting authorities on this occasion concerned in the most intimate manner the political and constitutional rights of all sections of the community. In such addresses it. was the association’s intention to point out that the right of the individual to rely with confidence upon the due and proper administration of justice was being gradually taken away from him. This weakening of the authority of the courts had been brought about very gradually, but it appeared to be part of a deliberate plan to increase the powers of the Ministers and of Cabinet as a whole. If the present policy were pursued the time must soon come when a citizen would find that the law courts would no longer stand between him and the ever-increasing interference and control of political parties and of bureaucracy. . “Dangerous Position.” "The position in which the LabourParty has now placed us all is a very dangerous one,” he continued. “In future tire Government can make use of its very powerful Parliamentary majority to force through the House in more or less skeleton form and in quick time any measures it pleases that are designed to bring about farreaching changes in our social, industrial, and economic life. When, it lays its proposals before Parliament it can coniine its Bills to a mere statement of broad general principles and it can, of course; limit the debate to a discussion of those wide issues which alone appear in its Bills. "In this way it can keep the public in the dark as to the actual details and machinery of its plans. When it has succeeded in rushing through such skeleton Acts with a minimum of debate it can then proceed to give full effect to its schemes by passing overnight an Order-in-Council introducing the most drastic and revolutionary changes imaginable. "It can go further. It can make use of its unfettered power to insert in such Acts a clause to the effect that the provisions of the Order-iu-Couneil shall be legal and binding and that they shall not be capable of being called in question in any Court of law whatsoever. Effect on Average Citizen. * “How would this affect the average citizen? Suppose the Government should be in desperate need of money, and it is not very hard to imagine that. Suppose that it decided to get what it wanted by a capital levy or by a forced loan. Other countries have succeeded in doing things in that way; why not New Zealand? A skeleton Bill is introduced giving the broad general power to the Government to raise money to meet its obligations and a provision is inserted in the Bill declaring that the Governor-General or appropriate Minister may make the necessary regulations for carrying out the idea. The Act may also declare that the Courts are to have no control whatever over such regulations "All this goes through Parliament without a hitch because of the large majority of the party in office. Then overnight, and perhaps when Parliament is not sitting, an Order-iu-Coun-eil is issued requiring all persons in the Dominion to lend or hand over to the Government a given percentage of their savings in any savings bqnk or any other bank whatsoever. -A citizen affected by this would have no remedy of any kind.” Professor Algie added that the association would hold public meetings in each of the four large cities and place a full statement of (he position before (he people The story Io be told | would be one that could not be narrated of any other part of the British Commonwealth. I