The Hawera Star SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1931. MR LANG AND THE LAW OF LIBEL

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 20 June 1931, Page 4

The Hawera Star

SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1931. MR LANG AND THE LAW OF LIBEL

Delivered every evening by 6 o’clock in Hawera. Manaia, Kaupokonui, Otakeho, Oeo, Pihama. Opunake, Normanby, Okaiawa Elthain, Ngaere, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Te Kiri, Mahoe, Lowgarth, Manutahi, Kakaramea, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, "Whenuakura, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

Readers have been recently informed that a rearrangement of the New South Wales Cabinet has been made necessary by the resignation of Mr Lvsaght. No very clear reason has been given for the resignation, but it; is not difficult to till in the gaps left in the Premier’s explanation. Mr Lysaght, as Attorney-General, was responsible for the Law Reform Bill, and, as.signs are not wanting that that Bill will not be persevered with, it is probable that Mr Lysaght's disagreement with the Cabinet arises out of a dispute over that remarkable proposal. The Law Reform Bill has been described as “the most preposterous legislative proposal of its kind ever made in a British Parliament for three hundred years.’’ Its main aim was, and still is, in fact (though there is little" prospect of the Bill 's becoming law) to impose a punitive censorship on all forms of political criticism outside Parliament, the offences, of course, to be designated as slander, libel, sedition, and defamation. One of the provisions, for example, proposes a penalty of two years’ imprisonment or a fine of £2OO for any person

who spreads or publishes unfounded statements concerning Government, policy, powers, or administration. The measure also deals with lawyers’ fees and other conditions affecting the legal profession. A few weeks ago the Bill was referred to the New South Wales Supreme Court Judges for an expert opinion, and their report, in spite of judicial civility, was damning. They declared unanimously that it “would prove unworkable in practice and aggravate immeasurably the evils that it is designed to cure.” But this report was not sufficient to force a. withdrawal of the Bill, though if it has been the means of compelling the AttorneyGeneral to resign his portfolio, the Government may be all the better for the loss of his services. That such an attack on liberty' of speech and the freedom of the Press could be contemplated by' any* man of Cabinet rank in Australia, a country more boastful of its love of freedom than any' other part of a liberty-loving Empire, is in itself something to be wondered at; but that Australians will submit to government by a party' whose whole Cabinet endorse such a measure is amazing. The Lang Ministry has given some far-from-pretty examples of what desperate Labour politicians are capable of doing when driven into a corner, but nothing in the Bang record is quite so ugly as this illustration of a desire to strangle criticism and terrorise opponents. The appalling record of Labour politicians in New South Wales makes the need for the frankest criticism of their disastrous economics and bitter classconsciousness greater than ever.