SEVERAL WITHDRAWALS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1934, Page 10

SEVERAL WITHDRAWALS

United Tress Association—By Electric Tele-

graph—Copyright. (Received September 1, 2 p.m.)

LONDON, August 31. Several additional withdrawals from tho England-Australia air raco in October arc announced, as follows: — Andre Guiet (France), William Cou'--tcnay (Great Britain), C. C. Gocrtz (Portugal), and A. S. Butlon. (Great Britain) from tho handicap section, and tho Wedell-Williams (U.S.A.) entry from tho speed section.

LIFE OF PARLIAMENT

THE EXTENDED TERM

DISSOLUTION PETITION

The widely circulated petition to the Governor-General requesting him to 'dissolve the present Parliament at the end of this year, on the ground that tho electors gave no mandate for tho extension of its term, was forwarded to his Excellency today. It had been hoped to present tho petition to the Governor-General personally, but ■ his Excellency's official secretary, Sir Cecil Day, advised that such a course would contravene constitutional practice.

Tho petition, which has .been forwarded to his Excellency by Mr. O. M. Moore, the first signatory, purports to have been signed by some 54,000 electors of New Zealand, and states in support of the request "that in our humble opinion it is in the interests and well-being of our people that your Excellency may be pleased to dissolve tho present Parliament at the end of the 1934 session, upon the ground that the said Parliament has without mandate from the electors legislated to extend its term, of office for a further period than that for which it was elected."

"In forwarding this petition to your Excellency as the representative in this Dominion. for his Majesty the King," the. petition states, '.'may: I be permitted to draw your attention in regard to this matter of very vital importance to the people of the Dominion? In the first place may I bring under your notice the fact that the Constitution provides that Parliament is-to. be elected for a term of three years and no longer? This being so, w contend that no Government should have power to extend its own life, excepting such wish is expressed by the people. Th,e extension was therefore in pur humble opinion nothing short than an usurpation of the right of the people. "The present Parliament in such case was not representing the people by extending its own life, and had therefore become practically dictators, a state of conditions that is very much resented by all loyal» subjects of his! Majesty the King. ■ "As some proof of this contention, it is necessary to draw, your attention to the' fact that public meetings have been ,held in all parts of the Dominion to ' protest' against the action of the . Government in this matter, and that resblutiotis have been carried at all these meetings, in nearly every case unanimously, protesting most earnestly against the. action of Parliament in extending the life of' Parliament without first having obtained a mandate from the people so ti do. Similar resolutions have also been carried at various meetings of local bodies in the Dominion, all of which have been' ignored by the Government; "If intho opinion of your Excellency there may be any doubt as to the rights of the people to demand that tho present Parliament should be dissolved at the end of the present session, may your, humble petitioners be granted the, right of appeal to his Majesty the .'King in. person, through the kindly offices of your Excellency? _ "This is, I understand, the first time on record in the history of New Zealand that such an appeal has been made to th» Governors-General of New Zealand on-a matter of such vital importance to-the wcllibeijig of the people of this Dominion, and .the course that has been adopted has been taken after very careful-consideration."