Greymouth Evening Star. SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 1950. State And Citizen

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 June 1950, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 1950. State And Citizen

•THE constitutional history of many & countries has been largely characterised by the struggle of the people against governments and monarchs who have sought to give themselves special immunity against legal action. After years of a .regime which did a great deal to prevent the courts from intervening between the citizen and the State, it is therefore refreshing to find the Attorney-Gen-eral, Mr T. C. Webb, an upholder of the principle that a court has other functions besides trying offenders and adjudicating in civil disputes. He has stated the intention of the Government to introduce a Bill granting the individual much wider legal rights in his relations with the State. The / Labour-Socialist Government in New Zealand had insidiously reversed democratic constitutional, progress by favouring a return to special State piivileges and immunities. While others before it were blameworthy, the Labour-Socialist Government outdid them all in sheltering its controls, and the decisions of its administrative tribunals, from appeal or other challenge in the courts. In some cases, under Socialist legislation, gthe individual could appeal only to the Minister, and, of course, this procedure opened the way for political patronage. The present Government has now given an undertaking that a counterpart of the British Crown Proceedings Act will be introduced into the House of Representatives this year. This Act, which was approved by’the House of Commons in 1947, places the State on exactly the same basis as a private person or company, in respect to the law of torts. Certain’important functions of the Crown—the defence of the Realm, for instance—are exempted from the Act, but in all other respects the Crown can be sued in the name of Government departments or the AttorneyGeneral. It also allows of the Crown being required, in civil proceedings to which it is a party, to produce relevant documents or answer questions in all cases except those in which the Minister can claim public interest as a defence. Because the State’s operations have come more and more to affect the daily lives of the individual,'there is grave need for the courts to be enabled to hold the balance—and, therefore, for the removal of provisions that weight the scales against the citizen or prevent the scales from being used at all. An important feature of the British Act is that State trading departments must accept the same obligations as ordinary trading firms and individuals. Instead of tending to consider itself above the law, the State—and those acting for it—is to be deemed just as subject to it as any citizen or group of citizens. If the New Zealand Bdl, as promised by the Attorney-General, follows closely the British Act, conditions in New Zealand will undergo a refreshing change.