STATE GOVERNOR

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 13 November 1926, Page 9

STATE GOVERNOR

MR. McTIERNAN’S MISSION ABOLITION OF OFFICE. INTERVIEW WITH MR. AMERY. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGIV: Received noon to-day. SYDNEY, Nov. 13. In his official report of his visit to London in connection with the difference between the Ministry and the Governor, the Attorney-General, the Hon. E. A. McTiernan stated that he made it clear to the Secretary for the Dominions, the Hon. L. C. M. S. Amery, that he had not come to ask him to abolish the Legislative Council. They agreed that it was not for Mr. Amery to say whether or not the Council should be abolished. In Mr. McTieman’s opinion the Governor’s attitude was destructive of the principles of self-government. Mr. McTiernan contended that a clause in the Governor’s instructions empowering him to dissent from the advice of his Ministers, if he believed there was sufficient cause, was an accidental survival from the early times. He strongly represented to Mr. Amery that the constitutional documents issued by his office should he recast in order to make them accord with modern constitutional practice. Mr. Amery replied that as this clause appears in the Royal instructions to Governors of all Australian States, and in the instructions to the other self-governing parts of the Empire, he feared that the proposal for an alteration would hardly be considered with exclusive preference to the State of New South W T ales. Mr. Amery said that he did not feel qualified or willing to express an opinion as to the powers to be exercised by the Governor. Mr. McTiernan bolds the view that the only responsible inference to he drawn from Mr. Amery’s statement is that a Governor should accept the advice of his Ministers. He recommends that the opinion of the Legislative Assembly should be sought and cabled to Mr. Amery.