MAGNA CHARTA

Grey River Argus, 23 June 1925, Page 8

MAGNA CHARTA

In view of the deportation of Seaman Lyons without a trial from Now Zealand over his agitation on the Manuka for better fare for the seamen, it is interesting to recall that it was on Monday just 710 years since the English people established the fact that kingship is a job and not a joyride. In other words to.day is Magna Charta J)ay, for it was on Monday, June ].», 1215, that King John was brought metaphorically by the scruff of the neck to Runnymcdc to sign the Great Charter—though as a matter of fact he, did not sign it, for he only stuck in the bottom a great seal of beeswax as large as a saucer and an inch thick, still to be seen in the British Museum in London. "The parchment is but a piece of sheepskin; the wax was made by the bees which hummed amid the hawthorn hedges of old England 700 years ago. The parchment and the wax are of very little account in themselves, but what has come from them are of infinite value.” An international association has boon formed with the object once a year on the third Sunday in June of reminding British and American people of what they owe Io Magna Charta. Tt seems quite a. good idea to us. We have in this little country SO M.P.’s, 40 M.L.C.’s, and some thousands of borough councillors and county councillors, most of them seized with the itch to steal away our liberties with laws, by-laws, regulations, Orders.in-Councils, and heaven knows what else. Magna Charta is the corner_stonc of the common people’s liberties, and we are all for the annual celebration while we still have some. liberty left to be thankful for. and before the new and improved political economy comes in. They are very keen on the Groat Charter in the United States, where it is regarded as the grandfather of 1 the Declaration of Independence and l the keystone of every American State Constitution, just as it is of every British Dominion Constitution. As that veteran American, Mr Elihu Root, stated in a very fine speech ten years back: "The essential thing is that the Great Charter asserted a principle of human liberty upon which rests the development of the freedom of the world. . . the inalienable rights of man, to secure ‘which Governments are created.”—And which as soon as they arc created all Governments straight away try to filch away from liini nn one pretext or an_