Minister's Action Said to Have Disturbed Country

Chronicle (Levin), 24 July 1946, Page 6

Minister's Action Said to Have Disturbed Country

-Press Association

- • By Telearayh-

.V ■• MELLINGTON, July 23. The division bells rang in the House of Representatives immediately after the resumption tonight. The gallenes o&|glik|^)puse were crowded. WhenfMr. Fraser moved that urgeney be t^k^it^for a diseussion 011 Mr. ilol1 a i&ffjf in o t i o n , "that the Governnient d.o"hs"not possess the coniideuee of this lF6Asgtf.'/4ie was greetcd by ioud opposition TaiTghter and eries of "running away. ' ' Mr. Hollaud said the House was en- ■ "tffcled toi' an explanation' from the Prime Mihistef as to wliy he souglit to tfltke tliis; step. j* Mr. Fraser replied: "For the obvious reason 1 don't want to waste the timo of the House." The division resulted ' in urgeney ? being. taken by 40 to 32 votes. .Mr. Hollaud said the Governnient 's decisiou to taho urgeney was the eiearest possible indieation of its attitude towards a niatter calling for the elosest possible public examinatioii. The i people would interpret the Governinent j deeision as a sign of weakne\ss. The J House had beeu in session v for . four1 : weeks doing very little, with no legisI lation before it, yet wlien an important 1 niatter sueli as tliis came befbre members, the Prime Minister tried to lock : the public out from the diseussion by • eoiitinuiug the debate until a late hour. j The.Prime M inister rdid .so, suggested jMr. liolland, because lie kuew liis side i was going downhill. j Ausweriug .Mr. Fraser's eout ention j that tlie Jilovihg. of the uo-eonJidenee niotion without qualiiieatiou was unpre- ! cedented, Mr. HplJand said the words , of liis niotion were identieal with those 1 of oue moved in 1931 by Mr. H. K. iioilaii(lr seronded by Mr. Parry. Tonight the iMotion was in the hamc of S. G. Hollaud and that seenied to make a : great dUl'ereueo to Governinent iiienii bejj-s.-sr, . - 1 j Mr. Hdilaud said tlie niatter he wi'sii- ; ed to diseuss liad disturbed the people ; throughout tlie country. We liad reaclied a situation all hoped would never ; liave conie about in Xew.Zealand — a situation in whieh there was politicai bil eiiferenee with our systeiu of justice. ' The dpposition alleged that there had , been unprecedented politicai interter- ; ence with an important part of our | judicial systern. The'Minister of Lands, ! having been dissatisfied with one of tne ! Courts of the land, had tried to push a i highly respectable citizen out of a posi- j j tion of importance in order to replace j 1 him with someone who would' give I !'judgment$;.satisfying. to. the Minister. j !If "tke Go'Vfernment of the day failed to j observe_ impartiality in enforcing and i adminis'tering the. law, it must lose tbe? country 's cohfi'dence.. Politicai lhterference with justice was abhorrent to every New Zealander, Alr. liolland explained the origin and purposo ;of the Land Saies Aet .whieli was passied in 1943 and tlie funetious ot .the Jutnd Saies Committees. The Gov- [ ernniejUp lie said, iviis, t'l'ecpient ly a htii gant in the Courts and it wouid be niouj strous to suggesl that the Governinent | should reniove'u Magistrute because hi'k j judgn/ent did' not suit*' it." ! ''Siihilafly/'i'/ j would be monstrous for a Miujstcr of j tlie' Crowif td roinove a person because I his deeisixm did not please the Minj ister, yet, that liad happeiied in this j { case. j | Mr. Hollaud referred to tlie call Mr. j | Skimtet'j as Aliaister of Lands, had 1 |uiale" for' the resignation of Mr. S. ; j Lewis, chairnian of tlie Hamilton Land ! j Saies CoininitteOj and dealt with Mr... Lewis 's 'qualilications, saying lie had j been ehoson chairnian because of his ; standing iu the country, liis impartiui j judgmeiits and his long and distinguisn- | ed record. Alr. Lewis and his eonumt- | j teo had given deeisions on approxi- : I inately 4SU0 Land Saies cases. Only j j appeitls had gone 'to the Land Sralcs j i Court and the Crown only 011 eleven j ' occasions ajipealed against tlie valua- j ; tious on property. placed by Mr. Lewrs" ! and his coininittee. Ten of the aiipea'ls , , were allowed and eleven others disuuss- > ! ed ot withdrawn. The appeals were! ! against [lie low prices Alr. J .ewis anu ! ! his coininittee tixed and in ten of tlie. j.31 cgses, the Land -Saies Court increased 'Ihe price of the land". Yet Mr. Lewis j was charged with having a bias in fav- | our of the vendors — that he had inade | the prices t oo liigh. . Only In one case | had an appeal by tlie Crown to liave the valualioii reduced been successful anu i ! in that case the price was tixed at ! higher tinui tlie Governinent vaJuation. j 'Akr, Hpl.land said no specilic clinrge

; was alleged against 'Mr. Lewis or Jns , coininittee, " but on the titi le-tuttle oi j soiup eoniplai uing public servants, the Minister sont a letter which is a re- , llectiorl on tlie integrity of a inan which no fainui'iulod person would like to j liave said about himself."

i Mr. Hollaud said that when the ! Minister charged Mr. Lewis with show- | ing bias against the Govemment and tn ; the vendors' favour, Mr. Lewis con- ■ sulted the Hamilton Law Society whicb j made an exhaustive investigation as a j restilt of whieli 72 of its 82 members rectfrded their opinion and all who diu" so swore on oath their belief in the infegrity of Mr. Lewis. Although Alr. Lewis had askcd tlvej ■Minister for the departmeiital reporr.s ,oii which the charge against him was I based, those liles liad not been made - uvailable to him to this day. | Mr. liolland said the Minister, by his action, had proved hiniself unfit to lioiu ofiice and the Governnient had i'orfeited Ihe- confidence of the people. Minister in Iieply Major. C. F., Skinner, Minister of SLaiidk, said the Leader of ,the Opposi- 1 tion h\ul risqn to lierate tthe Govern- ; nient inerely 'for endeavoui-iiig (o do its jo'b in adniinistering a piecc of legisla- 1 I tion for- which Ihe Governnient had no ! 1 apology lo make. Because the Govern-; meii^ insisted tlie legislat.ion should lie 'cairj.od but rn Ihe sjiirit inteuded when : •the * a'ct was - passed, Mr. Hollaud I clainied tlie Governnient should forfcit ofiice. Mr. Skinner said he had aj deflffite duty i.o pej'fonii in -administet4-

ing the Land Saies Act. "I ain not going to see any person iu this l)omm ion jeopardise that act and so make ditlicult the successful settlement oi •servicenien,"- he said. "1 liave uu apology to mahe for anything 1 have done and I will. sliow- the country tliai the Leader Of the Opposition has only oue side of the story aud ratlier garbleu. at that." Mr. Skiuner said the Act laid down that members of the Land Saies Cominittee were appointed by the Governor-Geperal-iii-council and held ofiice at his pl&asure. t)id that mean the Govern ment had no right to remove anyomwlio was not wofking for the purpose whieli the Act inteuded? It was lmpossible for the Opposition or anyoiic else to cite a single case in which heor any ineniber of the .Governinent had interfered. Mr. F. W. Doidge: Then tell us whv you railroaded Mr. Lewis. Mr. Skiuner read extracts froin several letters he had written to vari ous people declining to intervene m land saies cases and declaring that the conunittees were "entirely indcpendeni judicial bodies. ' ' Opxiositiou voice: Tell us why you got rid of Mr. Lewis? Mr. Skiuner said liis attontiou hau lirst been drawn to the workings of the Hamilton Land Saies Committee by a newspaper report of proceedings in which tlie chairnian had insisted on Jlxing the value for all sections oi land in a certain subdivision althougli the Crown s'ought the valuation of only one. The Crown representative was overruled by Mr. Lewis. Mr. Skiuner said he sent for the otlicia] reports and (ites of other cases and found that in numerous iustauces Mr. Lewis had devoted a page to recording the cvidence of vendors but had •- dismissed the Crown 's submissions with a brief note. Mr. Skiuner said any member of the Opposition, faced with the situation Jie found, would have taken the samt course. Mr. Skiuner said it was amplv Jiroved to liim JMr. Lewis hpd given decisions without consulting other members of tlie coininittee. Hepartinental ofticers iu Hamilton said there had been a sudden change in Mr, Lewis 's attitude from about the date of the Minister 's first letter to him. If the chairman kuew, after receiving that letter, liow the coininittee sliould bc conducted, he, should have known it earlier. " Wq want to see this measure administered as it ouglit, fairJv and ju.dicially, said Mr. Skiuner. "That itf all. " JMr. Skinnor ciied an instanee when Mr. Lewis- refusod to hear evidence from the Crown representative. "One cuiiiiot ignore evidence of this kind, " he said. Likened to Nazi Purge. ? Mr. T. Clifton Webb (Kaipara) said he had no MibkitatiDn in describing tlie action of the* Miiiister of • Lands . as- -a, Nazi purge. •: iThe " men who oceupied positions ■•on Land Saies comnuttees should dl'eel they could give independent judguicn'ts-.-or expressioiis of opinion without fbar of being- dismissed. Tho State now Wanted a voice not only in the proceedings of Land Saies Committees but also -in the Courts ' decisions and it was in that poiut that the Minister of- Lands was- at fault. What remedy had i*an individual if hc felt tlie Land Saies Ooiumittee had a bias towards the State? he askcd. The remedy which the State had was the right of appeal to the Land Saies Court. The question that the Governnient could, not answer was, if there was so inueJii dissatisfactiou with Mr. Lewis, whyl had the Crotvn not appealcd morei often? The rcsult of appeals was the most conviuclng and eloquent teslimony to JMr. Lewis 's impartiality so far as the Crown was concerned. JMr. Webb said there was a threat eontained. iu the invitation to Mr. Lewis to rosign. The Alinister's act had beeu clumsy and crude and he had not actod! as a commissioned ollicer but ratlier as: a iaw recruit. The JMinister had souglit' to bring retumed soldiers into the uiat-! ter but he (Mr. Webb) was eonvinced! that retumed soldiers would not waiiti to get land at reduced prices by unfairi metliods. i Prime Minister Speaks. JMr. Fraser said tlie Leader of tho , Opposition had not altacked the pre- ' sent probleiu in a judicial wav but in-; stead had becoine very angry because he (JMr. Fraser) liad proposed to tako; urgeney. If Mr. HoJiund had asked, 1 llie-House would liave been kept on tho air until a rcasonable hour.

He considered the Minister of Lands had conducted in a very dignified manner, the eveiits which led to the pre-! sent diseussion. He felt certain no! unprejudic&d person would say that the j Minister of Lands, because of his ad-: ministration of the Land Saies Act, was unfit to he a Minister of the, Lrown. The Minister had a responsi- 1 bility and so far from interfering with! justice would have been guilty ofj dereliction of duty if he had not called | the: attention of Mr. Lewis to the mat- 1 ter.- Mr. Fraser said he hoped Mr. Clifton Webb had not really meant that civil servants were a G-estapo. • . Mr. Clifton Webb: I told the Prime Minister I chose my words carefully. Mr. Fraser: Then that makes it worse. That makes it slander upon the . civil servants concerned. JMr. Fraser said there was rooni for a diiference of opinion as to whether tlie Minister's action was justifiable but there was no question of underininiugi | tlie pillars of justice aud all that non-t sense of which the Opposition had talked. That was gross exaggeration. i Mr. W. A. Sheat (Patea) said it was clear the JMinister "or soine of his G-es-tapo,'.' had been looking for a cross on which to crucify Mr. Lewis. A more absurd or trunipery charge had never been made against a responsible citizen: iu this country. No amount of minis-j terial sophistry could cover the saliem i, fact that the Minister had been subject! to outsidc pressure from a self-appoin-ted iinoificial Gestapo of interfering' busybodies. He liad no doubt that ui

this case, before the Minister was brought* to the point ot applying pres sure, there had been many secret meetings of the loeal comrades in Hamilton and no doubt, when the glad tidings came of the Alinister's action, (iword was passed round among the local nabbba of ultiinate socialism, that "we've lixed Lewis." ALr. Sheat said i public confidence in land saies cominiti tees had been prejudiced and the Alini ister should resign his portfolio. i Hon. A. H. Nordnicyer aud Atr. K. Af. , Aigie contributed to the debate and. the j. House rose at 11.40 till 2.30 tomorrow.