Saturday, October 2, 2010

Governor-General Signs Bill in Black Ink

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/4189179/At-Her-Majestys-service

Sunday Star Times [New Zealand]
3 October 2010

At Her Majesty's service

By ANTHONY HUBBARD - Sunday Star Times

[...] [New Zealand Governor-General Anand] Satyanand does not think he would refuse to sign a bill (this was last done in 1709). "If you weren't going to assent," he says, "you would resign."

There's an apocryphal story, Satyanand says, that [former Governor-General Dame Cath] Tizard was confronted with a piece of legislation she disliked. She asked her officials what to do, "and then she considered the position herself and said something like, `All right, I will sign it – but in black ink!' And the bottle of black ink was duly brought, the pen filled, and she signed it."

This is a great story that certainly sounds like Tizard – but the woman herself "hasn't the faintest memory of it". It might have simply slipped her mind, she told the Sunday Star-Times. She can certainly remember signing things she disliked. [...]

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