SELF-GOVERNMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 102, 3 May 1939, Page 5

SELF-GOVERNMENT

ITS RISE IN N.Z.

UNIVERSITY LECTURE

FURTHER STEP URGED

Features of the constitutional history of New Zealand were dealt with by Dr. J. C. Beaglehole in the course of a public lecture on the rise of selfgovernment in New Zealand, delivered at Victoria College, last night. The lecture was the third o* a series on public administration. Professor L. M. Lipson, Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, presided.

Referring at the outset to the relationship between the study of the rise of self-government and the subject of public administration, Dr. Beaglehole said that in New Zealand the Civil Service had only grown as self-govern-ment grew. The various Departments in the initial days of New Zealand were staffed by what were ultimately Imperial appointees. An efficient, responsible self-government was impossible without an efficient Civil Service and only under efficient self-govern-ment was an ,-fficient Civil Service possible. A Civil Service that was responsible to a body outside the country where it operated was ultimately an irresponsible Civil Service.

The history of New Zealand was really a comparative matter. Ii was to be understood only in the setting of the nineteenth century British Empire and the development of nineteenth century Imperialism in general. In consideration of the subject of the lecture it would be necessary to discuss in the end the development of Imperial policy and to speak of the influence of British institutions in various parts of the Empire.

Referring to the development of the federal system in the various Dominions, the speaker said that system had grown up in New Zealand much more simply and without the clash of forces and personalities that Canada and Australia went through. But although the rise of responsible Government in New Zealand had not been the fruit of any great agony of development such as had been the case elsewhere, this country had had its share of stupid tragedy. There had been the Maori wars, which were due to the evils of divided control. NEW ZEALAND'S EARLY YEARS. Giving brief consideration to the first few years of New Zealand's history,] Dr Beaglehole spoke of its first existence as a Crown Colony, of the Constitution of 1346, of the "murder" of that Constitution by Sir George Grey, and of the passing of the Act of 1852 which conferred on this country a Con stitution, the first essentials of which it still had. By May. 1856, Responsible Government had been conferred on New Zealand, and on the 7th of that month the first Responsible Cabinet in New Zealand met. New Zealand then went forward along the path of constitutional progress as eagerly as any of the other Colonies, though in the twentieth century New Zealand had shown marked reluctance to move forward at all and viewed the eminently wise provisions of the Statute of Westminster with1 some alarm. The Durham Report was dealt with at length by the lecturer. He said that Lord Durham held that in all matters which concerned the Colony merely j as a Colony the Colonial Ministers should have complete power, but that in those things that concerned the Empire as a whole there obviously should be power reserved to the Imperial authority. Lord Durham instanced in particular four matters that should be subject to Imperial authority—Colonial constitution, administration of Colonial land, trade and foreign affairs. After dealing with the administration of Native policy, which he said concerned very closely the growth of the Constitution and was also largely bound up with the development of land settlement. Dr. Beaglehole spoke of the right of the Imperial Parliament to disallow Acts of the New Zealand Parliament. He said that the Act of the Central Legislature in 1856 conferring on the Provincial Councils the right to deal with land was disallowed by the Imperial Parliament. Technically that power still existed in 1939. FOREIGN AFFAIRS. Foreign affairs had given rise to no difficulty because New Zealand had seen no reason to adopt an independent policy. That problem was reserved for the 1920's and 1930"s to deal with. Another step in the development of Responsible Government came in 1862. when the British House of Commons resolved that Colonies with Responsible Governments should bear the burden of their own defence. It was held that if the Imperial Government retained an army in a Colony, then it should retain the right to say how that army should be. used. The position in New Zealand was complicated by the Maori wars, for while they continued the New Zealand Government wanted the Imperial troops to remain here. The lecturer showed how this problem was related to the control of Native affairs and how that control was eventually handed over to the New Zealand Government. Dr. Beaglehole also dealt with the passing of control over Customs from the Imperial authority to the New Zealand Government and gradual limitation of other technical rights of [the Imperial Parliament to disallow [or reserve New Zealand legislation by the growth of a series of constitutional conventions. He also dealt at some length with the prerogative to grant or refuse mercy to offenders, the appointment by the Governor of Legislative Councillors, and, finally, the clearing up of the whole business of Imperial relations by the Statute of Westminster.

"A clause of the Statute of Westminster particularly absolves the Constitution of New Zealand from its operation and excludes any Dominion that doesn't adopt the Statute in its own Parliament," said Dr. Beaglehole. "New Zealand, therefore, has not yet advanced to full self-government. Apart from certain constitutional conventions, she is still legally in a position of subordination. She should adopt the Statute of Westminster as soon as possible as an indisputable contribution to Dominion self-government."

The speaker was thanked by Professor Lipson, who also informed the audience that owing to the intervention of the first term holidays the next lecture would not take place until May 30.

At the end of last year Mr. John Thomas, a platelayer employed by the Southern Railway for 48 years, died in St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Rochester; and it is now reported that he left estate valued at nearly £3000, the bulk of which he bequeathed to the hospital.