A SERIOUS MATTER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 655, 4 November 1909, Page 6

A SERIOUS MATTER.

—:—$ < Parliament is bound to take some notice of the disturbing comments of Me. Justice Edwards upon tho state of tho Consolidated Statutes. According to his Honour the Statutes are by no means a reproduction of the'law that existed prior to tho appearance of the five largo volumes that are puzzling tho Bench and Bar and causing trouble to laymen. Tho Commissioners made alterations in the law, apparently, of a substantial character, and, in Justice Edwards's words, " tfio Legislature, with full knowledge that tho Commissioners had altered and changed the law in numberless .respects, and had reported only such of these alterations and changes as in their:judgment were of sufficient importance to call for the attention of tho Legislature, chose to repeal substantially tho whole of the Statute Law of the Dominion, and to pass, inquiry, an Act which adopted a set of 'so-called Statutes, which woro really but schedules to tho adopting Act, and thus to ro-onacfc the law with such changes as had recommended themselves to tho ' Commissioners.' , Tho changes, his Honour declares, are " of an important character," and it will take " many years " to ascertain the full extent of these changes. The effect of the haste with which Parliament swallowed the work of the Commission is well illustrated by this caustic comment in his Honour's judgment: i w «°^« be " th l>'l>'M; of Jndicial irony lo hold that if a publican dosiros to know whether ? r i™ I ' , '- , "' subjecting himself to liability to criminal proceedings, sell beer clrawn from a cask in respDct of which duty has already been paid, m quantities of two gallons and upwards, ho cannot ascertain that fact without tracing tho legislation back to tho year 1880, mastering tho exact effect of that legislation, and then ascertaining whether or not that effect has been modified or nullified by the legislation of 1908. The Commission cost something like £5000, and the public will have good reason to feel dissatisfied with the whole business, which is a striking commentary ' upon tho way in which Parliament too, often docs its work. .-, ' |