TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 1908. OVER-LEGISLATION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 154, 24 March 1908, Page 6

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 1908. OVER-LEGISLATION.

One of the favourite boasts of the late Mr. .Seddon used to be that he had passed such and such an astounding number of Acts, and so deeply did his achievement appeal to his admirers tliat the menus and posters and illuminated . addresses of the Liberal and Labour Federation used to gleam in gold and silver with statistics concerning the dreadful mass of legislation placed upon the back of this patient country. Ait the present time the Government, while carefully reticent as to its, legislative intentions for the coming session, is 110 doubt drafting Bills and preparing its programme. As with the single exception of the year 1903, more general Acts we're passed last'.year than;in any year since the advent of John Ballance to power s in 1891, it is likely that' even the discomforts of the temporary home of Parliament will not check the present Government's eagerness to swell the already. enormous tale of legislation. It may, therefore, be.useful to call the attention of the public to the epidemic of legislation that is a feature of the times, .''not only here,, but in Australia ,'and England, and particularly in America. Mr. Bryce, who, in his " American; Commonwealth," quoted some astounding figures respecting' the legislative fecundity of the United States Legislatures, addressed the New York State Bar Association the other day upon the modern ; craze for law-making. Congress and the' various State legislatures, he pointed out, have in two years passed 25,446 Acts, and adopted 1576 resolutions. Whether the- disposition to increase the range of governmental action was right orwrong, Mr. Bryce would 5 not / discuss, but lie declared that "at the present day legislation yas too heavy to be handled by legislatures as they were now constituted. Many problems could only be mastered by men with special knowledge; and some organised'system was needed for the gathering and examination of materials for legislation, in order that difficult "questions might be handled in a more scientific maimer."

Although in New Zealand we have no figures comparable with the American statistics, yet the tale of legislation is sufficiently alarming. In' the seventeen years that have elapsed, since 1891, when the present regime began, there have been passed no fewer than 1052 public Acts, 482 local or-personal Acts, and 41 private Acts —a. total of 1575 statutes altogether, which gives an annual average of over, 90 enactments. Quantity, as we all know, has been gained at the expense of; quality,-but our legislators have"jiever shown any, inclination to curb their _ manufacturing zeal.. In • Greaf Britain, where complaint is beiiiy made of the evils of over-legislation, the public Acts passed in the last four sessions numbered only 173, while the public. Acts passed in New Zealand in the years 1904, 1905, 1906,' and 1907 number 268. Nor is the mere number of Acts. passed any measure of the legislative. restrictions imposed upon the public. Not only, do private Acts confer large powers upon local bodies, but few public Acts nowadays fail to contain provision for the issue of Orders-in-Council. , The amount of regulation effected by the delegation of powers to local authorities, and the reservation to the Government of the enactment of Orders-in-CounCil, probably far exceeds the amount of direct regulations: contained in the Statutes. The. temptations ■to over-legis-latiori are strong. A Government likes to go to the country with armfuls of statute books to show to fiie public as proofs of zeal and industrious statesmanship, whereas these fat volumes are more often proofs only of incompetence and meddlesomeness. The private member, moreover, cannot forego the pushing forward of his fad, and in the general accommodation, and helping-of-each-other-over-stiles, the books are cumbered with, enactments that we should all be better without.

The-London "Times" lias recently revived a suggestion for the cure of the evils due to over-legislation. There should bo, it says, '' some closer supervision of the merely mechanical parts of' legislation, some better guarantee than now exists that obvious ambiguities or contradictions shall- bo removed"; and in addition minor de-

fects disclosed in the working of.Acts should be automatically brought to the notice of Parliament- for correction. A correspondent of the " Times" suggests that Parliament should occasionally be prorogued for five years, in the hope that a more deliberative and discriminating procedure might 1)9 adopted. Many . people in this country have felt that nothing would be lost by the suspension of the Parliamentary sessions for three or four years, and the placing of the Government- in i commission. There is much to be said for this view. Legislators and the public might then take a more serious view of the important business of law-making, and the country would be spared the inconvenience and oppression caused by the unforeseen working of the -crude "benevolent legislation " now so popular. At the present moment a general committee of the public would be hard put to it to draw up a list of a dozen new Acts —apart from repeals—which are really required. Yet next session will yield its four-score statutes. There is some-, thing radically wrong when such a state of things can continue to exist.