The Waikato Times THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1937. BASIC PRINCIPLES.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20264, 5 August 1937, Page 8

The Waikato Times THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1937. BASIC PRINCIPLES.

The member for Napier, the Hon. W. E. Barnard, is Speaker of the House of Representatives and so, to some extent, outside the hurly-burly of party politics, and possibly that explains why, in the course of an address delivered to his constituents on Tuesday, he went far beyond the bounds of policies and programmes. Mr Barnard did the Dominion a service by stressing some of the basic principles of the democratic form of government, and the need for tolerance. “If we are to retain our democratic right of liberty/' he sa<id, “ all sections of the people must be prepared to impose voluntary discipline upon themselves." The point has been raised again and again since the emergence in Europe of men and groups who have succeeded in seizing power and in imposing a discipline on the nations concerned. Some people have concluded that this has resulted in increased efficiency, added power and a freedom of action in a national sense. The position was stated very clearly by Signor Mussolini when he wrote: “Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society; it denies that numbers alone can govern by means of a periodical consultation." On the other hand the British believe in the right of the majority to rule, and that government is by consent of the governed. But there must be discipline otherwise the machinery of governance cannot work. Mr Barnard urged the people to set their faces against theories, class war and opposing factions, but there is something more basic in character, more essential for national stability, than these things. The one thing vital to the welfare of any democracy is the administration of justice. That must be preserved whatever else may have to go, and it is at this very point that many critics of the Government see a danger. During the past year much has been done, in new enactments, to prevent those affected from obtaining access to the courts of the land. For the judges and magistrates there have been substituted members of the Ministry. On matters touching the well-being, the work, of many men and firms the word of a meipber of the Ministry has been made final. The country has noted that a member of the Cabinet, when explaining a Bill, informed the elected representatives of the people that “ the decision of the Minister is also to be protected from a decision by the Court." That can only mean that some party or parties are to be refused admission to a court, and that, it will be generally admitted, is a most serious development in a country that calls its government democratic. The discipline that Mr Barnard so rightly regards as essential is, in the last analysis, obedience to the law. He mentioned the danger of large-scale lock-outs and of strikes “in defiance of the law as it stood," so that if there were obedience to the law these dangers would be removed. But, obviously, if obedience to the law is to be so highly valued it implies that there should be unrestricted freedom of access to the courts which have been established to administer the law? There are business firms faced with the extinction of their businesses in the near future, and apparently at no stage of the process, arranged by those who intend to take over these businesses, will the parties concerned have the right to take the issue to a court. The output of one of the greatest industries in the Dominion is acquired by the State at prices determined by the State, and there is* a clause in the empowering Act which states that “the validity of any Order-in-Council fixing the prices of any dairy produce . . . shall not be questioned . . . on any ground whatsoever.” The voluntary acceptance of discipline by the community is possible when everyone knows that there is a course open for protection against injustice and wrong, and if only because access to the courts would give that assurance, and thus ensure willing obedience, the present trend to restriction should be abandoned.