REQUEST DECLINED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 7 December 1940, Page 2

REQUEST DECLINED

GOVERNOR ASKED TO WITHHOLD j ASSENT SMALL FARMS ACT [United Press Association] WELLINGTON. This Day. 1 Advice has been received by the; Dominion executive of the New Zea-! land Farmers’ Union that its request; that the Governor-General should with-: hold the Royal Assent from the Small Farms Amendment Act has been de-1 dined. The letter to the union from the officni secretary to the Governor-General stated: "I am directed by His Excellency to say that he has given the matter his most careful consideration and lias discussed the' question with the Prime Minister, but that, as the Bill has oeen passed by both Houses of the Legislature, and, moreover, as the; Governor-General is advised that no justification can be seen, either from the constitutional or any other point of viewfi for the withholding of the Royal Assent in this instance. His Excellency regrets that he is unable to accede to the wishes of your Dominion executive.” The New Zealand Farmers’ Union objected to the Bill becoming law on the following grounds:— The measure has roused such deep feeling among the farming community by the principle which it offends that in the interests of national harmony and m view of the undesirability of causing unrest among farmers at a time when all their energies should be devpted to that production which the Empire so urgently requires, we respectfully suggest that the measure be postponed, at least,«rtill the end of the war. I‘ is opposed to principles of justice which have been so long accepted and worn by usage into the Constitution as now to be a part of the Constitution of any Biitish community. It is an accepted principle of British justice that no Courts, specially Courts dealing with large amounts of money claims, and with important principles, shall be subject to control of the executive. The Prime Minister himself said in his closing speech in the debate on the Bill, that if any injustice occurred he would undertake to alter the method. We respectfully point out that it does not rest, and should not rest, with the executive or any member of it, to decide whether a Court of Justice is doing justice ! specially when the Crown itself is a pasty to all proceedings before the Court. The importance of this prin- j 1 ciole cannot be over-emphasised. r The second fundamental principle of i. British justice which the Act offends is 1 ' tin t no person shall be a judge in his !< own case This principle is equally as J well worn into our Constitution as* the ' principle that Courts shall not be sub- ( ,;ect to the control of the executive j A covering letter from the secretary « of the union. Mr A. P. O’Shea, stated'— I is also obvious that the Farmers’ 1 Union is not alone in its objections to these departures from established iudi ciai principles. 1 cannot over-emnba ' sise the grave view which mv organisa ‘ tion, which represents the great ' majority of the farmers of New Zea 1 e land, takes of the violation of the D rin ciples referred to. and it is only be- c cause of the great disquiet caused in * tne minds ot the farming community ' that we have taken this step of ap- t pr .aching you and asking that you C withhold your signature to the mea- v sure. t