SMALL FARMS BILL

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 December 1940, Page 2

SMALL FARMS BILL

FARMERS’ UNION REQUEST. [per press association.] WELLINGTON, December 6. The/following letter, signed by the Dominion secretary of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, was sent to the Governor-General, Lord Galway, on Wednesday:— 1, “I am instructed by the Dominion executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union assembled in Wellington to-day, to convey to you a formal request that you withhold the Royal Assent from the measure known as the Small Farms Amendment Bill, recently passed by Parliament.‘ The Farmers’ Union feels that the measure referred to should not become law, because of the following grave objections to it:— “(1) The measure has aroused such a deep feeling amongst the farming community by the principle which it offends, that in the interests of national harmony and fin view of the undesirability of causing unrest among farmers at a time when all their energies should be devoted to that production which the Empire so urgently requires, we respectfully suggest the measure be postponed at least until the end of the war. “(2) It is opposed to the principles of justice, which have been so long I accepted, and worn by usage into the constitution as now to be part of the constitution of any British community. It is accepted that the courts dealing with large amounts of money, claims, and with important principles, shall be subject to the control of the executive. The Prime Minister himself said in his closing speech, in the debate on the bill, that if any injustice occurred he would undertake to alter the method. We respectfully point out that it does not rest and should not rest with the executive or any member of it to decide whether a Court of justice is doing justice, especially when the Crown itself is party to all the proceedings before the Court. The importance of this principle cannot be over-emphasised. “(3) The second fundamental principle of British justice, which the act offends, is that no person shall be a judge in his own cause. This principle is equally as well worn into our constitution as the principle that courts shall not be subject to the control of the executive. It is also obvious that the Farmers’ Union is not alone in its objections to these departures from established judicial principles. . . “I cannot over-emphasise the grave view my organisation, which represents the great majority of the farmers of New Zealand, takes of the violation of the principles referred to above. It is only because of the great disquiet caused in the minds ol the farming community that we have taken this step of approaching you and asking that you withhold your signature to the measure.”

OFFICIAL REPLY. The following reply was received to-day from thft Governor-General s official secretary (Dr. D. E. Fouhy): “With reference to your letter oi December 4, in which you conveyed a formal request from the Dominion executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, that the Governor-Gen-eral should withhold the Royal Assent from the measure known as the Small Farms Amendment Bill recently passed by Parliament, I am directed by his Excellency to say that he has given the matter his most careful consideration and discussed the question with his Prime Minister but that, as the bill has been passed by both Houses of the Legislature, and moreover, as the GovernorGeneral 1/ " / justific?.tioii can bn secil 1 ruin the constitutional or any other point of view for withholding the Royal Assent, m this instance his Excellency regrets that he is unable to accede to the wishes of your Dominion executive.