REVIEW.

Evening Star, Issue 4217, 1 September 1876, Page 4

REVIEW.

Praetieal Statutes of N't'" Zealand, with fioiea and index. Edited by O. B. Barton, of the Middle Temple, barrister , . jrt law. In two volumes. Vol. I. Dunedin : Keith and Wilkie, legal literature has not yet found a home fiT New Zealand, and we are glad to see even ' ‘fiie faintest indication on the part of the members of the Colonial bar of a desire to •morgeffrom the drudgery of-their profession. I ll would of course furnish the most gratification to meet with a work dealing with . the principles of law; or, in default Skenof, a text book, well compiled after Ita-orthodox fashion. The first, perhaps, ft would be a little unreasonable to .expect, CCcfog that the dearth of such wbrka in

Jwrland.of late years is a constant jsubject «rf lamentation with the legal Press at ] Home} but the second is quite within the tovsds. of reason. However faute d« miwz, wvrajoiee at tha appearanoe of even an tfSition of praojkioal statutes; and as to the utility of such a compilation, there cannot be tw* opinions. Wilson's "PracticalStatutee," wWoh waiMHot'a fh*st-olass work in its prime, ttM long since got outof ;date; and amid the hundreds of iAots and amending Acts which Wv* since, then b«en placed on the 'Statute

Book, without order or arrangement; of. aire kind, the l?.nay practitioner often losps both •j .|fcaie and patienoe in. striving to find what is ' '' iki law and w£at is not thelaw on sdmo par%Uolar point. The coat Of the New Zealand ' jfthatutes in externa is also getting a matter of moment. They farm quite a library of themselves, and every year a fresh volume is ,'T added to the series. Were the whole of the Statutes which have,, been ,passed since the lottridation of the Oplony in 'force, the outlay inquired for the purchase of a complete set ;' -Vbuld be begrudged; but when the buyer of ,' :? edition is bound to take i the reMeii with the unrepealed Acts, it becomes more objectionable. In addition to the repealed Acts, numbers, of. the effective Statutes- are of a political or local

nature, and are so seldom.; referred to in ordinary practice that 'it is almost a waste of money, on the part of ,': most lawyers, "to buy them. When these three sets are eliminated, the left, trad which are of real ntility, may Be compressed within a very reasonable compass, and sold'at a "moderate price. That is what fa being done by Mr Barton, with tnq aid of his publishers. The practical statutes will be got into two volumes, the first of which Consists of 700 pages printed in small type, and they will be Bold at a figure, which —fll bring, the work within reach of everybody who has occasion for such a publication. The plan of arrangement adopted is, that of classification by subjects, which is much superior to the system of arranging the statutes alphabetically according to their" titles, since it not . duly enables the inquirer to discover more easily a statute whose preoise title he does not happen to know or remember, but the

' whole of'the law upon a particular subject is also-jseen at a glance ; while its comprehension ia facilitated, in tne present instance, Tby references to the amendiug Acts at the appropriate places. The text is inrther. illustrated by a certain number of jndicious ~ " HStes, which "the "editor states would have been more voluminous' than they are .''• but for the exigencies of the printingroffice ; the mass of minting required to be clone, .and the need for a careful ...revision of the proofs'having, as it was, considerably delayed the publication of the work. The task of ■ _ preparing a wprk of this kind must be not ..._. ".-altogether satisfactory to an editor; since V: : - Wseompetency is, displayed quite as. mucli by what he leaves out as by what ho'puts in, _amd it is only thorae who have a thorough Acquaintance with the raw material winch he bas undertaken to lick into shape who can. Judge of the amount of ability he has shown _. .-■••■-'. rui the performance <& : his self-imposed 1 dniby. '; ■ We frankly .cojifesl'to but an imperfect '_'* . ; with the sixteen or eighteen, ; precious Volume? in which the conse'eutive''wisdom of New Zealand Parliaments- is enshrined, and probably more than- one "eminent counsel/' in a mo,ment of quiet confidence," would admit a similar ignorance; but looking at the first .... v vplume : of the work in the light of the know- *'" ledge possess, we consider it very well ~ 4oiie indeed, and'pretty sure, as soon ;as its flierits'bec'onie known, to gain a wide circulation thiqugh the profession. The thousand

gentlemen whose "names appear on the Justices' rolk vonld also find this book a convenient means of • gaining some little insight ,0 ' > into the? laws whioh they Lave sa Boldly undertaken to,-administer; and, ; in short, •°- ; ■' ata publishers plight to have no reason • ''to *egrtt' r th ; 6 ,: enterprise which haq led "6xA"- guch "ar "workj -■' or the heavy, expenditure which must be jnvolved-in -its production. -In point of :.T excellently got .'"•'• tip» aaa ' could be 'put' upon the library .without-offending the eye of the q y M . juc*tfastidious Wmioisseur of bboks,- • ,; /V~-fjsho editor, in-his preface, says he in y- that this book may serve as a foundation tor a digest of the New Zealand ~ ilaw,f which,- _ in, turn, may' develop into a • ftpde, according, we presume, to the most' --■-approved-principles of Evolution. A digest is certainly a/mofe practical scheme than a Code. Much" has been written recently ''•'' ; about the codification of the New Zealand . ' Statuses; "but no one.has pointed put how the ~L . codification is to be accomplished, although Judge Richmond has been mentioned as the ■ Deut ex machind who could solve the difficulty. It is self-evident that a codifica-. • tion-of the New Zealand statute law would ""besdrfghlyuseful- it is a work that, could .be done by any competent ; lawyer. Praotically it is a question of , *'/. money. : ' But the cbdification accomplished, ita falue would diminish year by year unless ... ( the General Assembly could be debarred ( farther legislation ; and it is ntterly hopeless to! expect the Assembly to permit itslegislative functions' to lie in abeyance, even if it "were advisable on broad grounds rf public policy for it to do so. The volume % : tmcU*,yreview furnishes an illustration of v. ..... thesaj&marks.. It contains, amongst other ' things,"the conveyancing law. '-Now, the Conveyancing Ordinance of 1862 is a model r -.. cjf while it settles a number of irftricate questions'relating to real property law, upon which scores, not to say hundreds of cases are to be found in the reports, and !.~ ;1 wbioh h»xe furnished pabulum for multitudinous dissertations by learned text writers. Yet, about twenty Acts, directly or indiXfiotiy. connected with the subject of Conhave'now accumulated in the Statute Book, and not one of them can be -.'■ regarded as superfluous. Still, eff. ctual measures oould be taken for simplifying the - Statuto'law, and the man who devises a suitable means of accomplishing the task wifi deserve well 6& the country.