Nationality Bill Will Confer New Status on New Zealand Citizens

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26853, 18 August 1948, Page 5

Nationality Bill Will Confer New Status on New Zealand Citizens

P.A.

WELLINGTON, Aug. 17.

The United Kingdom Parliament last month passed the British Nationality Act which gave effect to the principles passed at the 1947 conference and set out that henceforth every Briton would be not only a British subject but a citizen of some Commonwealth country as well. The present Bill applied similar principles and followed the main lines of the-United Kingdom Act, said the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Parry, in the House of Representatives to-day, when introducing the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Bill.

“ Our Bill says what persons are regarded as New Zealand citizens, and says that all these. New Zealand citizens are also British subjects,” said Mr Parry. The suggestion had been adopted that those British subjects who desired might describe themselves as “Commonwealth citizens” instead.

While New Zealand raised no objection to the use of that term, elsewhere in the Commonwealth New Zealanders would continue to describe themselves as “ British subjects.” and would ask others to address them accordingly by that time-honoured title.

Mr Parry said anyone born in New Zealand or naturalised in New Zealand, and also any British subject who had had 12 months’ residence in New Zealand on January 1, 1949, was a New Zealand citizen. The interesting point was that some would be citizens of more than one country of the Commonwealth, continued the Minister. “I do not think this dual citizenship will have any bad effects. If anyone prefers not to be a citizen of two Commonwealth countries - at once he may make a declaration renouncing citizenship of one of them.” Mr Parry added Naturalisation Discussing the naturalisation provisions, the Minister said the requirements had been stiffened by adopting two provisions of the Canadian Act — that the applicant shall have sufficient knowledge of the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship, and shall give at least one year’s notice of his intention to apply for naturalisation. “ This will enable us to examine his fitness for citizenship over a longer period,” said the Minister. A simplified procedure, called registration, to enable married women and minor children to obtain New Zealand citizenship, was also embodied in the Bill. Though it was thought that it did no harm for a person to be a citizen ot two different Commorwweaith countries, the same view was not taken of dual nationality. “Though the United Kingdom takes another view, we have decided that in our particular circumstances New Zealand should adhere to the traditional view that a man with a claim to two nationalities should not chop and change about, but should make up his mind for himself where, his allegiance and interests lie, and be loyal to that nationality alone.” added the Minister. Mr Parry said that if a man born in New Zealand of Yugoslav parents desired to go back to his parents’ country and settle there be must face the possibility that his New Zealand citizenship would be taken away from him. Marriage to Aliens

The Minister said the whole Commonwealth was taking the step of restoring British nationality to all British-born women who had lost it by marrying aliens. The Bill omitted all reference to “disability on married women,” and it would be quite possible henceforth for the husband and wife to be of different nationalities. A new set of problems was raised, however, in the event of war—did one marriage partner join the armed forces, while the other was arrested and interned as an enemy alien? “ For such a reason we hope that the husband and wife will as far as possible adopt the same nationality, but the Bill gives more freedom to the individual than ever before to determine his own nationality, and it is left to each individual family to solve its nationality problem in its own way.!’ _ ■ Mr Parry said the United Kingdom had adopted the suggestion that British-protected persons and inhabitants of New Zealand’s trust territory (Western Samoa), while they were not British subjects, should not be treated as aliens either, but as an intermediate class, and conditions had been made especially easy for the naturalisation of protected persons as New Zealand citizens. Mr Parry said that, while the Bill involved a great change in principle, the change in practice would be very slight. He suggested that steps should be taken to see' that every school child was made aware of the provisions in the Bill.

Support from Opposition Mr T. C. Webb (Oppn., Rodney) said there was a disposition on the part of some persons in New Zealand to belittle the British Empire. It was, therefore, refreshing for all the Opposition members, and he hoped for all on the Government side of the House, to hear the Minister speak out as he did. Mr Webb said he would not support the Bill if he felt it tended to weaken in any way those ties of sentiment which were the only ties linking New Zealand to the British Crown. He was satisfied, however, that, if anything, the Bill strengthened those links, and he accordingly supported it. Mr H. E. Combs (Govt., Onslow) said the Bill and the discussion of it in the Statutes Revision Committee had brought home to him as never before the true significance of British citizenship, which stood for personal freedom and liberty. It was clear that, if it came to the point British citizenship meant something more than life itself, and the Bill in no way weakened the freedom which British citizens now enjoyed. One virtue of the Bill was that it restored to New Zealandborn women the status they ought never to have lost. Old Common Status Mr M. H. Oram (Oppn., Manawatu) said he was opposed to the principle of the measure but he had been driven to accept the Bill with reluctance because there was no alternative. Total injury had been done to the old common status which should be the prerequisite to being a British subject and therein lay his main objection to the present Bill. It was with reluctance that he would have to acquiesce to its passing.