PETITION TO KING

Taranaki Daily News, 14 April 1932, Page 15

PETITION TO KING

WOMAN SEEKS REDRESS. HISTORICAL RIGHT EXERCISED. An example of the prerogative of a British (subject to petition the King was provided recently when a woman reeidino- in the Waikato, having a grievance against the actions of a local body, wrote °to His Majesty Betting out her view of the case. A reply was received from the secretary to ths GovernorGeneral, Lord Bledisloe, stating that the matter had been referred to His Excellency and that the petitioner would be communicated with later. A petition, meaning generally a prayerful request for redress by a person aggrieved, may be, made in Great Britain to the Crown or its officers, or to either House of Parliament. In certain cases it may be made to Courts of Justice. The right of petitioning the Crown was recognised, indirectly, at various periods later, for example, in the articles of the Commons assented to by Henry IV., by which the King was to assign two days-in the week for petitions. 1

In 1&89 the Bill of Rights declared “that it is the right of the subjects to petition the King, and all ebmmitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal.” Petitions to the Crown appear to have been at first for the redress of private and. local grievances, or for remedies which the Courts of law could not grant. As equity grew into a system, petitions of this kind not seeking legislative remedies tended to become superseded by bills in chancery. Statutes were originally drawn up by the Judges at the close of the Parliamentary session from the petitions of the Commons and the answers of the Crown. Under this system of drafting it was found that the tenor of the petition and. answer were not always stated correctly, and to obviate this inconvenience demands were forthcoming, in the reign of Henry. VI., for legislation to be drawn up in the form of bills, which the Crown could, accept or reject, but not alter. In the same reign the words “by authority of Parliament” wore added to the words of enactment, and from the time of Henry VII. public legislation has been by bill and not by petition. • -