RIGHTING INJUSTICE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 14

RIGHTING INJUSTICE

GOVERNMENT'S ENDEAVOUR

AIM IN RECENT LEGISLATION

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

DUNEDIN, May, 31

Some of the problems which confront the Government were discussed in an address given to business men today by the Postmaster-General and Acting Minister of Finance (the Hon. A. Hamilton). The occasion was a luncheon tendered to the Minister by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, and the attendance was one of the largest that has yet assembled at a similar gathering. Discussing telegraph charges, Mr. Hamilton stated that the Government tried to carry on the business of the Post Office as well as possible with the idea of service" rather than profit in mind. The Post Office did give good service, and New Zealand was the only country in the Empire which had penny postage. That was a great benefit to business men and an offset to any disadvantage that might exist so iar as telegraph charges were concerned. What the Government tried to dp was to make each service balance its own accounts and not to make one section of thfe service pay for another. That, he believed, was good business. Some of the Acts which the Government had'passed in recent years, the Minister declared, were of the greatest importance. Some might still say that the weak should be allowed to go to the wall apd that the law should take its course, but he did not believe that to be a wise policy. The Governmenthad encountered conditions under which two sections of the community had entered into' an agreement. , In the meantime conditions had Changed to such an extent that one party might be ruined. Ordinarily the law would have taken its course and there would have been no talk of moral right or breaking an agreement. When this problem had confronted the Government solicitors,had said that there was a sacred duty .to carry out the terms of an agreement. The law was the higest authority which had to be obeyed, but the Government had taken the view that if an agreement were to inflict injustice, its duty was to put the injustice right. (Hear, hear.) That was the foundation of the Government's interference with the sacred rights Of contract.