REVISION OF STATUTES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3730, 29 June 1883, Page 4

REVISION OF STATUTES.

Tlio report of the Statutos Eovision Commission (Mr Justice Johnston and the Solicitor- General) has boen laid on tlio table of the House. The Commission state that they have, in the further execution of their task, adapted and completed the criminal code from the bill introduced into tne Imperial Parliament in 1880. A full report is annexed to the codo which they have prepared, and copious notes are appended thereto. They have also prepared the following new Consolidation Bills, •which accompany this report, viz. :— (1) Counties, absorbing 6 Acts ; (2) Municipal Corporations, absorbing , 7 Acts and 27 Provincial Ordinances ; (3) Property Law, absorbing 15 Acts; (4) Trustees, absorbing 4 Acts: (5) Crown Grants, absorbing , (J Acts; (6) Saving Banks (including Postoflico Savings Banks), absorbing o Acts ; (7) Patonts, absorbing 3 Acts; (8) Sheriffs, absorbing 6 Acts; (9) Execution of Criminals absorbing 3 Acts; (10) Police Offences, absorbing 3 Acts and 27 Provincial Ordinances; (11) Public Libraries, absorbing 3 Acts. Besides the above there are a few other bills, which, if time permits, they hope to bt) ablo to complete early in the session. There aro some points affecting certain of these measures to which they call attention. They say: "During last session an Act was passed amending in several important particulars the Counties Act of 187G, and although the amending Act has had little timo to operate, and the new Bond Boards Act only came into force on Ist January last, yet, as wo were dealing -with other Acta affecting local government, it seemed convenient that the Acts affecting counties should bo consolidated. It will be a question for the Legislature to decido whether it is expedient this bill should now be proceeded with, or a further period be allowed to elapse before passing it. The Municipal Corporations Bill is not open to the objection which arises in the case of the Counties Act, and in its new shape the Act will be found convenient to bodies called upon to administer its provisions. Respecting tho Property Law Bill, in our r jport of 1832 reference was made to this subject, and to the work rorformed. We then indicated the measures prepared upon the following subjects—viz., Conveyancing and Acts directly relating thereto, Landlord n.nd Tenant, Leases and Sales of Settled Estates, Trusteos and Mortgagees (including Trustee Acts and the general enactments relating to religious, educational, and charitable trusts). It was then proposed that certain amendments which had suggested themselves upon a consideration of the recent Imperial legislation not in force in the Colon}' should be adopted, and that further amendments contemplated in England should beintr duced, arid wo intimated that these bills would be submitted at a later period of the ensuing session of the General Assembly. During the session, however, measures were introduced which, had they been passed, would have materially modified the law as to several .subjects we proposed to deal with. We came to the conclusion that it would not be expedient to carry out the original intention. Accordingly we have recast certain of these bills, and this year submit to you an Act which merely consolidates the statute law now in force in the Colony upon the subjects to ■which it relates. How far it may be desirable that an enactment should be prepared embodying both the Imperial and local law as to property, is not a matter upon which we are called upon to express an opinion. The task would be one of magnitude, and at present of doubtful utility, whilo so many questions which agitate tho public mind remain unsettled. Our report of lust year referred to the fact that, with the exception of certain subjects, jiiosb nf those which came within the scope of our duties had been rVult with. Of these exceptions, tho principal laws affecting local Dodies have now been prepared for consolidation. With respect to tho statutes relating to the sale and disposal of Crown lands, to mining, and to Native lands, we have been informed that Government are not prepared to submit to Parliament consolidating bills on these matters at present. We have therefore refrained from the preparation of bills on these subjects, which would have necessarily involved a considerable amount of useless labour. Respecting a law of evidence, it •would bo easy to proparo a consolidation of the Acts in forc<3 in the Colony, but we have not undertaken the task, as we understand it is proposed at an early date to codify the ■whole law on the subject. Recent enactments have changed the electoral law of the Colony, and as each of these is complete in itself, there does not appear any need for consolidation. Assuming the measures submitted become law, tho work of the Commission, so far as consolidation is concerned, will close with tho session, and unless tho Legislature resolves to tho contrary, wo propose after the session has ended to complete our work by preparing a complete revised edition of the Statutes of the Colony as contemplated by tlio Prevision of Statutes Act, as it is evident that under the repeatedly changing circumstances of a Colony like this, supplementary and amending legislation will necessarily be frequent. There is no finality in such work. No useful end will be gained by delaying the preparation of the complete edition alluded to merely in order that certain new enactments which might be introduced into the Consolidation Acts should be included therein, or because come of the statutps already passed will probably require amendment speedily.'