SUBVERSION OF POPULAR RIGHTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 July 1926, Page 4

SUBVERSION OF POPULAR RIGHTS.

LAWS WITHOUT PARLIAMENT. GOVERNMENT BY ORDUR-IX-COUNCIL. (Contributed). Probably ' very few members of the House of Repersentatives understood what Mr V. 11. Potter, tlie member for Eoskill, was talking alxmt last week when lie demanded, during the course of the debate on the Address-in-Reply, that legislation should he introduced during the present session to restore to Parliament the various authorities and functions the Government arrogated to itself by the passage of the Board of Trade Amendment Act of 1923. New members, it. seemed, never had heard of the Board of Trade Act. and a great majority of the old ones, it appeared, had forgotten its existence. Yet this measure confers upon the Government of the day, whatever its political colour may he. powers which have been exercised in no part of the Empire, save New Zealand. in time of peace. It is under its authority the present Government, as its predecessor did, has issued Orders-in-Council ignoring the Statute law, it may he the rights of the individual and the authority and privileges of Parliament. ,

HOW IT WAS HONE. The original Board of Trade Act was passed in .1919 with the purpose of making provision for the exceptional conditions that had arisen out of the Great War and consolidating the legislation to a similar effect already on the Statute Book. The Amending Act was introduced in 1923, five years after the close of the war, and passed through Parliament with much less attention than it should have received and apparently, without oven, Ministers understanding fully what it implied. Some of the provisions of the measure, shorn as far as possible of their verbiage, may be briefly stated: (a) Section 2 sub-section 1 abolishes the Board of Trade by repealing various sections of the principal Act. (b) Section 2 sub-section 2 vests all the powers, duties, authorities mufunctions conferred by the principal Act upon the Board of Trade in the Minister of Industries and Commerce.

(e) Section 3 sub-section ] provides for the appointment- by the Governor-General-in-Council of an Advisory Board consisting of any number of members not exceeding five, to advise the Minister in all matters in which lie may deem that he requires,such advise for the due exercise of the powers duties and functions conferred upon him by the Act. This Advisory Board is to meet from time to time as requested by the Minister. Two members to form a quorum. (d) Section -1 provides that iiie Minister may in any case associate with h in,self or with any member or members of the Advisory Board or with any person or persons to whom he may have in any case delegated bis powers of judicial inquiry and investigation, any one or more persons who in bis opinion is or are possessed of expert knowledge of advantage in the conduct of the inquiry or investigation.

(<•) ll.v .section -1 sub-section 2 the foregoing provisions are to be substituted for the provisions for Associates ol the Board of Trade in section 17 of the principal Act.

(I) By section 5 the Minister may delegate to any member or members of the Advisory Board or to any officer of the .Department of Industries and Commerce the powers of judicial inquiry and investigation conferred upon the Board of Trade hv the principal Act. WHAT IT MEANS. The died, ol the abolition of fbo Board of Trade and the vesting of all the Hoard's powers in the Minister is that the Goveikior-G'enerfil-in-Council on the recommendation of the Minister alone may make by regulation such provision as he deems desirable in the public interests for the following purposes:— fa) for the prevention or supprex•doii of methods of competition, irailing, or business which are considered to he unfair or prejiulieii.il to the industries of New Zealand or to the public welfare.

(b) For the prevention or suopresxion of monopolies and combinations in or in relation to any industry which are considered to he prejudicial to that or any other industry in New Zealand or fo the public welfare.

(e) Fur the establishment of fixed maximum or minimum prices or vales for any classes: of goods or services or otherwise for the regulation or control of such prices or rates. (d) For the prohibition, regulation, or control of. differential prices or

rates for goods or services for the tiifferenti.il treatment of different persons or classes of persons in respect of goods or services in cases where the existence of such different ini prices, rates, or treatment is considered prejudicial to any industry in Now Zealand or to the public welfare. (e) For tire regulation and control of industries in any other milliner whatever which is deemed necessary tor the maintenance and prosperity of those industries and the economic welfare of New Zealaiul.

This I'ist provision of course, places vast and undefined powers, if not in the hands of the .Minister alone, at any rate in the hands of the Government. A SHACKLED PARLIAMENT. All regulations framed under the authority of the nlnve provisions are to Lie known Us “Board of Trade Regulation” and are to take effect when gazetted or on any later date specified in the. regulations themselves. The regulations have to be laid before both House of Parliament within fourteen

days of their being gazetted if Parliament is then in session, and if not, then within fourteen days after the commencement of the next ensuing session. If both Houses of Parliament during the. same session pass a motion disapproving of any Board ol Trade regulation such regulation ceases to bo in force as if it had been revoked. In this connection it will be noticed that the provision requiring legulations to be laid before Parliament may offer very little protection to toe public. Parliament usually goes into recess early in November and rarety reassembles before the end of June. Hence, a regulation made, say, on November 8 ai.d gazetted that day might hive full force and effect till the middle of July, a period of over eight months. Even then it would be necessary for both Houses of Parliament to pass motions of disapproval before - the regulation could be revoked. Mil'll one House containing a majority of Government supporters, unwilling to discredit their party lenders and the. other House liable at any time to be swamped by the Governments own nominees, consider what all this means. It means that powers have been put into the hands of the. Minister, or (at any rate, into the hands ol the Executive) is so great and so far-reaching that the whole industrial system ol the Dominion might be revolutionised without any reference to Parliament, ihat the rights of property might be abolished by the stroke of a pen, and that the basis of the entire economic structure of the country might be destroyed without the people’s chosen representatives having any opportunity or

power to intervene. INQUISITORIAL AND ARBITRARY The original Act was not whir time legislation. It was passed a year after the Great War ceased. But even : f U could be justified by post-war conditions, w!>it could justify the step taken by the Legislature in 1923, Lvo years after the conclusion of peace, when it, in effect, not only confirmed the original Act, but actually increased the inquisitorial and arbitrary powers that could be exorcised by abolishing the Board of Trade and vesting the initiation of extended powers in Unhands of the Minister alone. This is the condition of affairs to which Mr Potter drew attention all 100 mildly.