“THE NEW DESPOTISM”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18547, 6 November 1934, Page 7

“THE NEW DESPOTISM”

POWER OF CIVIL SERVICE AN INEVITABLE TREND SYSTEM DEFENDED (Parliumimtary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. What has been called in England “the new despotism,” the delegation of legislative powers by Order-in-Council for administration ■ by public- servants, is frankly discussed and defended by the Public Service Commissioner, Mr. Paul Verschaffelt, in bis annual report. There had been considerable criticism of this phase, but those who voice it, says the commissioner, overlook the fact that growth, in the volume of delegated authority has become necessary owing to the increased demands for new and detailed legislation. ‘•These'demands have arisen, not from the Public Service, but from the peoplo themselves,” he says. “It is clear that the critics do not appear to be alive to the evolutionary change in public administration which has been imperceptib-ly-brought about-by 'the growing- dependence -of ■ the public itself,; in particular ot defined classes and sections of the public, upon legislative protection and oupervisionary control of matters which, in former times, were considered to be capable of protection from within the ranks of private activities themselves.” Extensive quotations are made in the report from opinions expressed by an English commission which investigated allegations that the Government departments had been encroaching on the provinces of the Legislature and judiciary. - ’ CRITICISM IN COURTS

It was found, points out the Public Service Commissioner, that delegated legislation is inevitable under the present Parliamentary system, and that it would be futile for Parliament to work out details of legislative changes. The Legislature has not the time to discuss minor matters or technical details.

A New Zealand example is the electrical wiremen’s regulations, which, according to the Public Service Commissioner, with their mass of technical diagrams and details fill a reasonably sized volume.

The English commission followed criticism by Lord Chief Justice Hewart, extended in his book, “The New Despotism,” which attempted to show that the Civil Service had attempted to "cajole, coerce, and to use Parliament.” The commissioner declares that a subsequent official inquiry removed at the outset the foundation for Lord Hewart’s case by acquitting the Civil Service of any such sinister motives, and Lord Hewart himself could not give any examples of abuse of power by civil servants. Turning again to New Zealand criticisms, Mr. Verschaffelt remarks : ■ “Misunderstanding is caused by remarks made sometimes in our courts when an application to some new set of facts, ot regulation or Ordcr-in-Council is placed before the judiciary for consideration. Then, and in most cases) without justification, a cry is carelessly raised in public that the liberty of the subject is in danger, by reason of delegation to officers of .the Public Service of powers which should be vested in the Legislature itself. SAFEGUARDING LIBERTY “It is overlooked,” he adds, “that the primary function of Parliament is the safeguarding of that liberty; and that Parliament, of itself, is incapable of performing the now innumerable administralive functions by which such safeguards' as it imposes can best be made secure, for it is clear that liberty can best be secured, not by a curtailment of control, but by its extension. Conditions of modern society have crowded upon Parliament, and, what is no less important, on members of the Government and the Cabinet itself, far more work than either of thejn can be expected to perform with efficient consideration to detail. Neither body can devote the time to working out the administrative details by which the will of the Legislature is made capable of execution.”

The commissioner predicts that the more social and industrial legislation increases, the greater will be reliance on the Public Service to execute the legislative will. “From a perusal of tlm English report on the investigation of this modern phase of administration, the decision is arrived at,” adds Mr Verscbaffelt, “that it is easy to criticise the growth of delegated legislative authority. “The critics, however, are confounded when asked to devise a remedy for the situation they condemn.”