Press Release
Press Release of the Monarchist League of New Zealand
8th December 2000
Challenge to Monarchy
The Guardian newspaper of London has announced its support for what has been described in the New Zealand Herald as a move to scuttle the monarchy. Actually the Guardian has launched a legal challenge to the law of succession to the Crown, a somewhat less ambitious aim.
At present Roman Catholics and anyone who has married a Roman Catholic cannot inherit the throne, and although women can succeed, males are preferred. The former is a consequence of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the latter the result of over a thousan d years of legal and cultural development.
The present legal challenge is based on the Human Rights Act 1998, which came into force in the United Kingdom late last year, and which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex or religion.
The newspaper 's campaign has several curious aspects. Firstly, it is being waged in an aggressive and confrontational way, almost as though the monarchy itself was resisting the proposed changes. However both the Queen and the Prince of Wales are on record as supporti ng changes to the present succession law, which Parliament had originally imposed upon an unwilling monarchy.
Lord Williams of Mostyn, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Home Office, announced three years ago that the British government supported changing the law of succession to the throne. That change has yet to occur is simply a reflection of the complexity of the task, and the lack of urgency.
Thirdly, any alteration by the United Kingdom Parliament to the law regarding the succession to the throne would not itself be sufficient to alter the rules of succession to the throne in other independent members of the Commonwealth of which the Queen remains head of State. New Zealand and every other country affected would have to change its succession law at the same time, or we would be faced with the possibility at some time in the future, of having a different sovereign to the United Kingdom.
The prohibition on Catholics suceeding to the throne is a consequence of the 1688 revolutionary settlement, after King James II had attempted (or so his critics argued) to re-impose Catholicism on a predominently Protestant people.
A return to the unspoken expectation of royal Protestantism of the Henrician reforms of a century earlier would be preferable to an outright legal ban on Catholics succeeding. This would leave the legal establishment of the Church of England in England, and the Church of Scotland in Scotland, substantially intact. But it would mean that a Catholic king or queen might succeed to the throne, as James II did, disasterously enough for himself, in 1685.
The present arrangements provide that the Crown descends lineally through the issue of the reigning Sovereign, subject to the right of primogeniture amongst both males and females of equal degree. Thus the eldest or only son succeeds, but if a sovereign h as only daughters, then the eldest of these will succeed in preference to a brother or uncle of the previous sovereign.
Were a succession law to be drawn up today it is likely that it would provide for the succession of the eldest child of the Sovereign, irrespective of sex. Sweden has recently adopted such a rule. However that replaced the much more restrictive Salic law, which allowed only male rulers. The British tradition has been one of compromise, of flexibility, and was never so exclusive.
No selection process for a head of state is perfect. Just look at the American presidency. The USA presidential election in 1996 cost the almost inconceivable sum of US$2.7b (NZ$6b). The election just held, with its attendant legal and constitutional chaos, will prove no doubt to have been even more expensive. The law of succession to the Crown is a product of an incomparably older tradition.
Constitutional changes should be as a consequence of mature debate, not media-inspired court action. Most importantly, this is a matter for the people through their duly elected representatives, in the New Zealand and United Kingdom Parliaments.
Queen Victoria Celebrations
The Monarchist League's Victoria Day celebrations will be held on Sunday 21st January. A picnic in Albert Park, Auckland, will celebrate New Zealand's unique cultural heritage and identity from Queen Victoria's time through to the present day.
The day will include a formal ceremony at 11 am, with the unveiling of a floral tribute to Queen Victoria, who died almost one hundred years earlier.
Men of the 65th Regiment, a military re-enactment group, will provide sentries and a formed body for a feu de joie to the accompaniment of a cannon. The Auckland City Brass will provide afternoon entertainment while members of the public enjoy a Victorian-theme picnic in Albert Park.
Members of the Maori group Rangi o te Ao, and several cultura; groups, will perform at intervals until festivities conclude at 3 pm.
Dr Noel Cox
Chairman