IMPORT CONTROL JUDGMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 23273, 23 May 1939, Page 8

IMPORT CONTROL JUDGMENT.

As a result of Mr Justice Callan’s judgment declaring the Import Control Regulations, 1938, not valid, the Government finds itself in-an embarrassing position. It was understood apparently that both parties had agreed to accept the decision of His Honour as final, but that is not suggested in a remark attributed to the Prime Minister at Wellington last evening to the effect that the text of the judgment would be considered by the law officers, and if they so advised the judgment would lie tested in the Court of Appeal. It seems unlikely, however, that such a course will be taken, for the hearing of the appeal would mean considerable delay, and it may be expected that when Parliament meets next month the Government will immediately put through the necessary validating legislation. This is another case in which Ministers acted without taking the precaution to see that they were on sure ground. It will be remembered that an appointment by the Government to the directorate of the Reserve Bank had to be validated afterwards by an amendment of the law, and there was a previous case of a similar character. Nothing much will be gained by the judge’s decision, except, perhaps, that it will be a warning to Ministers to take greater care that any regulations they may make in future will have the weight of the law behind them.

When the regulations were first brought down the National Conference of Importers declared them to be impracticable, unnecessary, and unjust. There was a wide feeling of resentment, and the case just heard was more or less of a protest against their introduction. There was a good deal of feeling, too, at Home, and people there will not be favourably impressed when they learn that the Government in framing them went beyond its powers. In the course of his judgment His Honour, referring to the powers which the regulations, if valid, conferred upon the Minister of Customs, said it was within the competence of Parliament to confer them and entrust them to a single individual or to the holder for the time being of a single office. In the opinion of His Honour Parliament had not done that, nor had Parliament empowered the Governor-General in Council to confer those powers upon the Minister of Customs. The judge further remarked that he did not believe that the language relied on by counsel should be interpreted so as to attribute to Parliament that it had empowered the Governor-General in Council to introduce, even temporarily, so remarkable a change in our national life. His Honour added that a delegated legislative power could not be sub-delegated except in so far as Parliament, which created the power, had said it might he sub-delegated. In the opinion of His Honour the Import Control Regulations cannot be supported by the Acts bearing on the matter. There the position stands till Parliament meets. Mr Savage says it would be erroneous to assume that as a result of the judgment of the court the importation of goods without a license would be feasible. “ Any attempt now made to import goods without a license,’’ added the Prime Minister, “ can only result in disappointment and avoidable financial loss to those concerned.”

The Education Department lias now authorised the Otago Education Board to accept tenders for the erection of the Dunedin South Intermediate School. The lowest tender for the building is that of the Love Construction Company, and for the heating system and electrical installation Messrs A. and T Burt Ltd The total cost is in the vicinity of £33,700. The efforts of the railway engineer’s department to prevent the erosion of the foreshore opposite the Oamaru railway station are proving successful. The task of facing the work with stone is now about half-completed, and in the heavy blow which took place last week no damage at all was done to the part which has been faced, although there was a quantity of soil removed from a point which has not yet had the protection of the stone.

No damage was caused by three chimney fires which broke out last night. Tho first was in Forbury road at 6.36 p.m., and the second in Ferguson street, Musselburgh, at 6.55 p.m. These were both dealt with by the South Dunedin Brigade. The remaining call was from Tennyson street at 10.35 p.m., and was answered by the City Brigade. To-day at 12.25 p.m. the brigade was again called out to deal with a rubbish fire in Knox street, Opoho. The annual winter sketch exhibition of the Otago Art Society will be opened at' a gathering of members and friends to-morrow evening. The exhibition will be held in the society’s club rooms, lower Dowling street, and the convenience, comfort, and suitability for the purpose cannot iut be appreciated by tho society’s patrons. The society has a large number of working members, and the result of their activity witli pencil and brush will be anticipated with pleasure. Yesterday was receiving day, and the quality and the number of the exhibits entered give assurance of a varied and excellent display of oil and water colours illustrative of the scenic beauties of Dunedin and of Otago. There will also be a display of arts and craft work, revealing that the machine age has not altogether ended the pride of craftsmanship.

An unrehearsed 'interlude unexpectedly added to the entertainment of members of the Junior Chamber of Commerce at a tea- meeting held in a city restaurant last evening. A tenor had commenced to render an item when a canary, which up to that moment had apparently been dozing in his cage, awrtke from his slumbers. The orangecoloured bird seemed to accept the singer’s laudation of Erin as a challenge not to be passed over. He promptly began to say what he thought in a voice exceptionally powerful for his species, and from beginning to end of the song it was doubtful who would be the winner. It is to the human singer’s credit that he managed to keep to the air, and at the finish he gracefully accepted the harmoniously discordant interruption as a complimentary obbligato. The defeaning applause from the vastly amused audience, however, silenced the feathered songster completely, and the tenor was able to render an encore in peace. The Poppy Day return now totals £2,602 10s sd, additional receipts being from “ Sympathiser ” £l, cash sales 3s

Handed over to the police on the arrival of the Awatea this morning at Wellington, John Richard Anderson (40), a labourer, was sentenced to 14 days with hard labour. He told the police that he went to Sydney by the Awatea a week ago as a stowaway, but was not detected on that occasion. This trip he reported himself to a steward after the vessel had left port.—Press Association.

The cabbage trees in the Octagon which attracted the adverse attention of speakers in the Burn’s Club at their annual meeting have been removed, and “ Rabbie ” Burns can now gaze complacently down the length of Lower Stuart Street. Only the plane trees and the telegraph poles are left to interfere with view, and it is to be surmised that no objection will be raised to their continued presence. A grove of rowans, or even the daisybespattered lawn might have been symbolical, but no true Burns enthusiast could stay wholly at case while Rabble looker! down on the Octagon, his head framed in a motif of cabbage-tree leaves. •

There was no business to engage the attention of the magistrate in the Police Court this morning.

The special lighting of streets during Show Week this year will be confined to the Octagon and the streets leading to the Show. Cr D. C. Cameron explained to the City Council last evening that the sum of . £350 was spent last year on the scheme, but an allocation of only £SO was made this year in view of the fact that the council had pledged itself to embark on a much bigger street lighting project, at a cost of £SOO, for the National Centennial Week. “ There has been a considerable number of inquiries from citizens wishing to take up debentures, and the indications are that the response will be' adequate for the council’s requirements,” said Cr W. B. Taverner, referring at the meeting of the City Council last night to the five loans totalling £222,700 that the council intends to raise, and for which the interest rate for debentures is to be 4-i per cent, in conformity with the announcement by the Prime Minister regarding the interest in relation to local body debentures. Cr Taverner added that application had been made to the Treasury for the necessary authority to have the new rate for these particular loans. Depredations by keas and hawks have caused these birds to have had a price put on their heads, and even tiny birds and animals have had at times inducements paid for their destruction. A dingo scalp in Australia has a value, and in other countries other animals have helped many a family’s finances by their demise. So it should be supposed that when an elephant becomes a public nuisance his removal would cost the ruling authority a considerable sum of money. Rogue elephants in Ceylon do a good deal of damage, and sometimes human life is lost owing to their pranks. Captain J. Shirley told a ‘ Star ’ reporter yesterday that when a rogue elephant appeared a special license, which cost nothing, could be obtained to shoot him, but once the elephant was shot, the license bolder was indebted to the Government for the value of the ivory in the beast’s tusks.

Studies for the second term of the year began to-day at all schools in Dunedin—primary and secondary, State and private—with the exception of St. Hilda’s College, which will reopen tomorrow, and the Technical College, which began yesterday. University terms, however, will not recommence until May 29. “ Your roads in New Zealand are far better than our expectations,” volunteered Captain J. Shirley, visitor to the city, who left on his return trip today. He had also motored lately on the Melbournc-Sydncy highway," and that was outstanding, particularly on the New South Wales side of' the border. However, roads ns a whole in New Zealand were remarkably good, and this fact added considerably to a visitor’s enjoyment of the country.

As a result of the widening of the Leith canal at the outlet into Otago Harbour, the railway bridge has had to be lengthened, and part of this work was carried out last Sunday, when a girder on one line was placed in position It is expected that another Sunday will see the completion of the task. What is the name of a male swamr' It is doubtful whether that question could have brought a reply at a meeting of any other than the acclimatisation society The answer is not at all obvious, vet it was answered immediately. The male swan is a cob, the female a pen, and the young, as everyone knows, is a cygnet. It is probably only the English language which could produce such widely differing names for differing phases of the one variety of bird, yet such weird combinations, it one stops to think, are common in the realm of the barnyard. Sheep, pigs, and horses provide common examples of the same weird! tendency of the language.

The free issue of tobacco at_its infirmary which the Auckland Hospital Board at a meeting on May 8 decided to discontinue was a question revived at a meeting of the board last night. After a long discussion in which the position of the inmates under the Social Security scheme was discussed, a motion rescinding th» previous resolution was lost by a large majority. As a result the board’s earlier decision will stand. • ’

With the advent of cold weather large numbers of mice have invaded houses in several Wellington suburbs (says the ‘ Dominion ’). They are reported to be causing a nuisance in Roseneath and Hataitai and Oriental Bay, and also in parts of the Hutt Valley. Rats are also unusually plentiful this winter. The long, dry autumn proved unusually favourable for the breeding and foraging activities of these vermin, which to a great extent spend the warmer part of the year out of doors. The cold weather of winter drives them indoors in search of warmth and food, less easily obtainable in the open than before. The suburbs most afflicted by the invasion are those adjacent to reserves or to the seashore, or with steep hillside gardens, offering suitable shelter and scavenging grounds for them. Living out of doors, they devour seeds, insects, scraps left lying about by human beings or by dogs and cats, almost anything that comes their way. Indoors they will have access to anything not contained in tins. They can gnaw through wood. All oily and fatty foods are highly esteemed by them. A Roseneath resident last week had almost the entire contents of a pound carton of putty opened and devoured by mice, for the sake of the linseed oil it contained. None the less, it must have been an indigestible meal, lacking in nutriment. The services of an amphibian aircraft were called into use yesterday (savs a Press Association telegram from Auckland) to bring an injured man from Great Barrier Island to the Auckland Hospital. While quarrying rock on the island, Henry Hugh Williams was hot on the heap by flying stone, and suffered concussion. The Hobsouvillo Air Base was asked if it could send a machine to the island, and the naval authorities released H.M.S. Leander’s amphibian for the task. The machine made a quick flight to and from the island, and when it returned Williams was taken to hospital. He is not seriously injured. The Tekoa, which reached Auckland yesterday from Liverpool, brings 10 parcel receptacles for Dunedin, which should be to hand on Thursday. The Awatea left Sydney on Saturday for Wellington with 55 bags of Australian and Empire mails for Dunedin. These are expected at the local office to-mor-row evening.

At a meeting of the Dunedin branch of the Peace Pledge Union held on Saturday the following resolution was passed unanimously : ‘ We, the members of the Dunedin branch of the Peace Pledge Union, have appreciated the efforts of the Government to improve the social welfare of the people of this country, but we regret that at the present time the Government is being led into huge expenditure on armaments and the development of military organisation. This expenditure we are convinced can only be made at the expense of the social development so much desired by the Government and the majority of the people.” It was also decided' that a copy of the above resolution should be sent to the Prime Minister.

Accurate bombing could not be guaranteed from any height because of the human element, said Wingcommander G. S. Hodson, Officer Commanding the Wigram Air Training School, speaking yesterday to members of the Christcbuch branch of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association at their monthly luncheon (says the ‘ Press ’). It had been found, though, that bombing from 16,000 ft to 20,000 ft was sufficiently accurate to cause extensive damage, although there could be no certainly at such a height of hitting a particular object. He added, in reply to a question about the efficiency of the balloon barrage in London, that no understood the balloons rose to a height ol about 20,000 ft.

“ Aftei 50 minutes to an hour of flying by the aid of instruments, a fatigue period sets in, and for no apparent reason the pilot will start to become erratic,” said Wing-commander G S. Hodson, Officer Commanding the Wigram Air Training School, in an address yesterday to members of the Christchurch branch of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association (says the 1 Press ’). Wing-commander Hodson explained that part of the advanced stage of instruction of pilots included flying 100 miles across country with instruments only. This he described as a rather terrifying experience for the first time, as the instructor made it a rule not to speak to the pilot. The instructor was always on watch for the fatigue period, which usually occurred after 50 minutes to an hour. The onlv thing for a pilot to do when this period set in was to shut his eyes and relax completely for 15 seconds. At the end of the training, the onset of the fatigue period was delayed for about an hour and a half.