The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1930. A CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 December 1930, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1930. A CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE.

Ir is inevitable that there should be an appeal from the decision of lJ je Full Court in New South Wales upon the issue referred to it arising out of the passage of the Bill which provides for tbo abolition of the Legislative Council. It is an issue which in its broad outlines-says the “Otago Times” seems not to concern the State of New S«ftntli Wales only but to affect the powers of the Parliaments of the Empire. In this sense it is of even greater importance than the question whether the bicameral system of legislation is or is not desirable and necessary, Stripped of the complications in which precedent and legal authority may envelop it, the issue is perfectly simple. During the last Parliament in New South Wales, the Bavin Government, apprehensive lest its opponents, if they came into power, might seek to demolish the Upper Chamber, introduced and secured the enactment of a menisure under which any proposal for the abolition of the Legislative Council would have io he approved! by the electors by means of a referendum before it became operative. The fears of the Government at that time were not groundless. At the earliest possible moment after the present session was opened, with the bang Government firmly seated in nowor in the elective Chamber, two Bills were introduced—in the Upper House, iteelf—one providing for the repeal of the Act which had been passed at the instance of the Bavin Gov-

eminent and the other providing For the amendment of the Constitution Act so a.s to abolish the Legislative Council. Both measures were passed without much debate, the Legislative Council itself accepting with remarkable complacence the proposal to subject it to a sentence of death. No sooner had they been passed than the Equity Court was moved for an injunction to prevent the presentation, of them for the Royal assent. The motion was remitted from the Equity Court to the Full Court, with the result that this Court almost unanimously held that the abolition of the Legislative Council cannot be effective until the proposal has l>een submitted to the electors by referendum and confirmed by them. This decision ) it will be seen, disregards the fact that the Act providing for a referendum has been repealed. On the face of it, the judgment of the Full Court seems to strike a blow at. the supremacy of Parliament. The view that any one Parliament can tie the hands of a later Parliament is not one that coincides with, at all events, the popular estimate of the powers of the Legislature. Mr Justice Long Innes, the member of the Court who dissented from the judgment, expressed ■ the lopin.ion that the Parliament which passed the Bavin Government’s Bill providing for a referendum had attempted to restrict the powers of repeal that are conferred upon the Legislature. The grounds on which he disagreed with the decision of his colleagues give a certain judicial support to the popular view of the extent of the authority of Parliament. The great importance of the principle that is involved in the proceedings renders it essential that the judgment of the highest Court in the Empire phall he secured regarding it.