ORDERS-IN-COUNCIL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18424, 9 December 1921, Page 4

ORDERS-IN-COUNCIL.

The amendments which the Government has introduced in the Customs Duties Bill in connection with the submission to Parliament of Orders-in-Council relating to the tariff leave untouched the principlo that underlies the objections to legislation by the Government without reference to Parliament. It is a concession to the criticism directed

against the Bill that the Government has agreed to lay before Parliament early in each session every Order-in-Council that has been issued during the recess. It proposes still to retain authority to exercise while Parliament is in. session the unusual powers which it is claiming and receiving under the Bill. We can perfectly well appreciate Mr Downie Stewart’s argument that if the sections of the Bill which deal with the imposition of special duties by Order-in-Council are to be of any use they must be operative at once. But why should there be any need to legislate by Order-in-Council, while Parliament is in session? What justification can there be for so doing? The claim which the ■ Government asserts in this respect involves a distinct derogation of the rights of Parliament. Mr Downie Stewart rather temerariously referred yesterday to the criticism which was justly aroused earlier in the year by the action of the Government in placing, by Order-in-Council, a temporary embargo on the'importation of gas-cookers. The “ full story ”of the episode omitted any allusion to the grounds of criticism. These were that the Government had acted in an unconstitutional manner and without any .statutory authority that could legitimately be held to justify the issue of the Order-in-Coujncil. That criticism stands to-day, its validity not being affected by anything which the Minister has said in defence of the action of the executive. The whole principle of legislation by Order-in-Council is mischievous and dangerous. It destroys the safeguards which publicity offers against arbitrary and illconsidered acts on the part of the executive. The value of the system under which a tariff is not finally framed until after it has run the gauntlet of parliamentary discussion is that the opportunity is offered for the consideration of each separate proposal from -gvery point of view before it has been passed. Illustrations of the importance of this system have been furnished in the case of the tariff proposals which are now before Parliament. 1 The Government hasXrecognised the existence of so much force in the criticism by which certain of the duties proposed by it have been met that it has withdrawn or modified its proposals. It will not be surprising if, at its own instance, others of its proposals are amended before the passage of the tariff is completed. The practice of legislation by Order-in-Council deprives the Government of the aid which is the result of publicity. It condemns it to the exploration Of hidden and obscure paths, and threatens it with the danger of arriving at ill-advised decisions. But the most serious objection to it is that it tends to undermine the supreme authority of Parliament. So grave is this objection that it is strange that Parliament has acquiesced so tamely in the adoption of it.