Hope Deferred...

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 714, 13 July 1929, Page 8

Hope Deferred...

Petitions Go Before Parliament

TpHBEE are many people in New Zealand who, when other legal means fail, take their grievances to the State for adjudication. Hundreds of petitions, representing thousands of names, go before Parliament every year. They are then either rejected by select committees or allowed to pass through the slow machinery of the Government before relief—if any—is granted.

Because Parliament is the highest authority in the land, petitioners must approach it with the humility befitting its dignity and prestige. But most people cannot altogether dissociate the great political machine from the personality of their district member, in whom they repose implicit faith as a worker of miracles when their requests are read to the House of Representatives. No sense of awe, then, quells their determination to be heard. Yet the member for the district whence the petition originates frequently has nothing whatever to do with the document beyond formally introducing it to Parliament. If he is not on the select committee which considers it, he must wait until the report returns to the House with a recommendation. Then and only then, may he justify himself in the eyes of the people whom he represents. In New Zealand there has grown a feeling in recent years that if social hardship and legal injustice are experienced the Government will help the sufferers out of their trouble. In the main this optimistic belief is founded upon fallacy—a fallacy which has prompted more than one member of the House of Representatives to suggest that New Zealanders have been educated to lean too heavily upon the State for a settlement of their difficulties. PRAYERS ABOUT EVERYTHING Petitions, for which Parliament possesses special machinery, cover a range of subject almost as wide as knowledge itself. From a demand for “an independent tribunal to investigate the forces which command the universe” to a humble request to be allowed to sell ice creams on a Sunday, the prayers of his Majesty’s subjects are collected at Parliament Buildings and submitted for investigation by the select committees within whose province they come. A man asks that his son be given probation instead of imprisonment; a woman prays for legislation to restore to her her child; the Police Department is asked to restore to a petitioner £9 10s 4d stolen from her house some years before; a few appropriate words upon the gravestone of a son who died from war service is the modest request of a sorrowing father; another man seeks free railway and steamer fare from Auckland to Dunedin so that he might sit for a medical examination.

The procession never ends. Over 300 petitions, containing thousands of signatures, pass through the hands of the committees at every session, Landtax paid in error, complaint against police methods, hardships upon country women and children through Summer Time legislation, the removal of a name from the criminal record, smoke nuisance from railway engines and noise from shunting trucks, a permanent job in the Civil Service, a modest loan of £250 to enable petitioner to start in business on his own. A great many of these appeals are, after inquiry, merely rejected as unworthy of Government attention. Others are referred to the Government for consideration. The most worthy ones—a small percentage incidentally—are referred, to the Government for favourable consideration. When favourable consideration is recommended, petitioners see a glimmer of hope. If it be merely considation, the hope is not so bright. If no recommendation is made, the hope is indeed long deferred, and maketh sick the hearts of both petitioner and member. MANY MAORI APPEALS Weight of public opinion cannot be overlooked by select committees in considering petitions. When over 3,000 people ask for altered shop hours, and a similar number of signatories press for religious exercises in schools, the committee piust weigh its evidence with great care, for its report is the only reliable guide the Government has of the merits of the requests. Many petitions are made by Maoris—sometimes one-third are native requests. They ask for a return of confiscated land, inquiry into certain tribal rights, the prohibition of set nets for whitebait in certain, fishing streams, the resoration of burial rights and redress for alleged -wrongful acts by the Government of the long ago. In many cases inquiry and favourable consideration are recommended for Maori petitioners. Even if the Government is recommended favourably to consider and specific prayer, Cabinet has the final say in granting or rejecting relief. Some petitioners are attended to almost immediately. But some have been favourably considered for years, and are still looking forward to the day when a spark of Ministerial generosity will be shown in a belated response to their consistent prayers to Parliament.