USE OF REGULATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21520, 17 June 1933, Page 10

USE OF REGULATIONS

Tlic Court nf Appeal judgment in what has come to be known as the picture theatre case has a general as well as a particular importance. It has established that in the view of this Court —which can be challenged only before the Privy Council—the regulations by which it was proposed, in effect, to control the opening of additional picture theatres arc not in accordance with statute law. The language of the judgment also supports the view that the method of proceeding by regulation to reach an objective after the Legislature has provided only the elementary beginnings needs watching, especially that it demands greater vigilance from Parliament. The Judges did not say so. They were concerned with the law, and in any event would not be likely so to express themselves on a question of public policy; but they did not need to say it. The implication is quite plain in a statement which refrained scrupulously from comment on a controversial subject. It must be emphasised again that objections to "Government by Order-in-Council" apply to the abuse, not the use, of regulations. In this instance the Chief Justice remarked that the argument advanced by the SolicitorGeneral on behalf of the Department of Industries and Commerce seemed to mean that Parliament had "surrendered to the Executive the whole control and governance of all industries and all trade and commerce of the Dominion," subject only to what was in effect described as an insufficient check. It was decided that the argument was not tenable under the law. That is satisfactory, so far as it goes, but what needs to be marked is the fact that a' department should assert that it held such powers, and press the claim as far as the Court of Appeal. The value of the hearing and the judgment lies in their revelation of the lengths to which this development of the use of regulations can go if it is not restrained. Parliament has been moved on several recent occasions to assert its privileges in face of criticism it resented. It would be far better employed in safeguarding itself against the encroachment on its powers of a bureaucracy growing ever more assertive. The precautions recommended by a recent British report on government by regulation must be again commended to the notice of the New Zealand Legislature.