Grey River Argus MONDAY, June 20, 1927. A POPULAR RIGHT ABROGATED.

Grey River Argus, 20 June 1927, Page 4

Grey River Argus MONDAY, June 20, 1927. A POPULAR RIGHT ABROGATED.

An encroachment upon the right of trial by jury of a very sinister nature is that to which attention is drawn in a recent issue of the “New Zealand Worker,” namely, the taking from injured workers of their right to have claims against employers for damages tried by jury. The evil character of this recent innovation is exposed by a legal authority who is in this sphere certainly second to none in New Zealand. Mr P. J. O’Regan, who recalls that when

19 years ago Parliament abolished the scandalous defence which em- , ployers used till then invoke of ‘‘a fellow-worker's negligence,” , it .ended the injustice whereby an injured man could not at common law sue his employer for damages due to a fellow-worker’s negligence. This great reform, however, says Mr O’Regan, gives evidently displeasure in hi°h places, and the result has been what he terms ‘‘a political ukase called an Order-in-Couneil whereby the action of the Legislature is rendered nugatory in that the right of an injured man Io have his action remitted to a jury of his fellow- j citizens is taken away.” Mr O’Regan adds—“ln this connection the followin’’’ facts are significant:—(a) The deed is done by the Government shortly after the last General Election when the great man, Gordon Coates, is supposed to have swept the country; (b) it is done while Sir Robert Stout, the alleged sturdy upholder of Liberal principles, is Chief Justice and Deputy-Governor; (c) it is done by the Government with I he concurrence of the Chief Justice and three of his colleagues on I he Bench; and (d) it is done by the Government of which the real head is Sir Francis Bell, virtually the Premier of this country since 1912, though he has been elected to Parliament only once in his life -1893-1896! Surely if the foregoing statement of facts concerning a daring and outrageous attack on popular ri’dits docs not stir the people of this country, the sooner the Government becomes an avowed Dictatorship the better.” The. manner in which the workers’ right has been destroyed is as follows:—The Judicature .Act, 1908, empowers Sunremc Court Judges to make rules of procedure which, till the said ukase of December, 1924, provided that where the amount in issue was £5OO or under, either party could have issue of fact tried by a jury of four by the simple process of tilling a. notice, eight days before the hearing and serving the other side with a copy of the not ice, and where the amount in issue exceeded £5OO, the ease, was automatically remitted to a jury of twelve. The right to a jury in such cases depends on the rules made on the advice of two or more Judges by the Government. On December 8, 1924, there was Gazetted the Order-in-Couheil, in which, not two Judges, but the Chief Justice and three other Judges concurred, the Chief Jus-