LINK WITH THE KING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20405, 6 November 1929, Page 12

LINK WITH THE KING.

PRIVY COUNCIL APPEALS. REMARKS BY LORD HAILSHAM. fFROM OUR OW.V CORRESPONDENT.] VANCOUVER. Oct. 16. Lord Hailshani, who was Lord Chancellor in the Baldwin Government, gave a decided set-back to the movement for abolishing I'rivy Council appeals in an address here on tho eve of sailing for the Institute of Pacific Relations Conference at Kyoto. His address was timely, as Dominion delegates were about to .assemble in London to. discuss, besides this question, a possible amendment of the Colonial Laws Validity Act, necessary to give the fullest effect to the equal status pronouncement of the 1926 Imperial Conference. In Australia and New Zealand little is heard against the Privy Council appeal. In South Africa the Act of Union virtually brought it to an end. In India some throe or four years ago tribute was paid the Privy Council, when the Swarajists rejected a resolution to abolish the appeal. In the Irish Free State violent opposition to the right of appeal is heard, despite the fact that the Government retained it as a means of protecting loyalists. In Canada the movement has grown with substantial support from members of the Dominion Government.

"The right of appeal to the Privy Council," Lord Hailsham said, "arises historically by virtue of tho fact that any subject may petition His Majesty when he believes a wrong has been done. When an appeal comes from any Dominion overseas it is referred to a committee of the Privy Council, in order that it m/iy advise His Majesty whether a grievance exists. That .tribunal is not merely one of English Judges. I have run into cases before the Council where there .was not an English Judge sitting. Commonly Judges from England, Scotland, South Africa and Australia sit on tho tribunal, and every summer a member of your own Canadian Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Duff, or sometimes the Chief Justice, sits on the Council.

"The Privy Council is a tribunal of the best legai talent in the Empivo to sit on exceptional cases to advise His Majesty if a mistake has been made, and from the very fact that members aro drawn from different parts of the Empire, remote from local influences, they are able to take a more detached view than those on the spot. In Canada I should have thought it was valuablo to have such, a tribunal to which the people can appeal with confidence, knowing that only impartial views will obtain." The Hon. Ernest Lapointo, K.C., Minister of Justice, who heads the present Canadian delegation to the "little Imperial .Conference," holds the view that, in federal matters, the Supreme Court of Canada should bo tho last source of reference. The genoral view of the Conservative Opposition is that Canada should regard tho right of appeal as entitling a citizen to take his case to a tribunal directly in touch with tho Sovereign, and almost as high as the Crown itself. Nevertheless, it is expected that some modification will bo made in tliQ ambit of reference, if the appoal is not abolished altogether.