ERROR IN A STATUTE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 98, 20 January 1920, Page 10

ERROR IN A STATUTE

NO SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES,

Public mention has already been made of an error which has crept into a statute passed by Parliament last session dealing with tho control of rivers in Hawke's Bay, the. name of. the statute being tho Hawke's Bny Rivers Act. When tho Bill camo originally' before the House of •Representatives, there, was a clause in it by which the Hirers Board asked for power to raise. «. loan of ,2150,000 without taking a poll of the ratepayers. This clause was objected to by tho House, and it was struck out of ,tlie Bill. In the Legislative Council, however, the clause was reinserted in tho Bill. There was a conference between representative;) of the two Houses, as is usual in such cases, and tho outcome of the conference was that the original clause was dropped. But in the Bill as prepared for presentation to His Excellency the Gov-ernor-General and duly incorporated in the printed statute-- ior the year, the original clause appears. It happens most fortunately, however, that the mistake is not likely to do any sorious harm,' as the following statement made on the subject yesterday by Sir Francis Bell makes clear:

"It is, unfortunately, true that tlicro has boon a blunder of the Parliamentary ofiicials whose duty it is to compare the final conies of the statutes to be presented for His Excellency's signature on behalf of the Crown. The Hnwke's Buy Rivers Act, as appearing in the Statute Book, is not in the terms in which it was finally passed by both Houses of Parliament. It is believed that this is the first occasion in the history of the Parliament of New Zealand on which such a mistake has occurred, and it is worthy of note that the last session of Parliament was iim first in which tho minute and careful supervision of Mr. Leonard Stowe, the late Clerk of Parliaments, was not available. It is fortunate that tho section which empowers the raising of the loan, and in which an error has been mado by the omission of tho requirement, of' a poll of ratepayers, specially provides thai 'befora proceeding to raise Ihe said loan, the board shall submit their scheme to the Minister, and shall obtain his approval thereto, or shall alter or modify their scheme, or shall adopt a new scheme as the Minister shall direct.' Thus the Government has indireellv tho power of preventing the loan being raised in the manner authorised by the section as it stands, but not authorised by the actual decision of Parliament, and manifestly it is the duty of the to exercise such power. So far as the Government knows, the lioard has no intention of talcinu advantage in any manner of the mistake which has been made."