PARLIAMENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 21 July 1891, Page 3

PARLIAMENT.

HOtJSB OF REPRESENT » f IVES.

FRIDAY, JULY 17. The Hon the Speaker took the chair at 2.80 p.m. The Premier mentioned that be would' bring down the Taxation Bills on Tuesday or Wednesday next. The following Bills were read a second time:— Public Revenues Bill ; Partnership Bill ; Ropeals Bill aris~X»ocal Bodies' account "and Audi^Biil. ;i v $h;e : 'Miriister of Justice moved tHe secon/l reading of the Criminal Code, Bill. It had, he said, been before Parliament from time to time since 1888, and closely followed the lines of an Act drafted in 1878. It was to the great mind of Judge Fitz James Stephen that this Bill owed its origin, and it had been since then revised by the leading legal authoritiesfiwho had 'adapted i the English ' Criminal < ode to the ' requirements ot the . Colony. The Bill" in its present form was the work of the lattj Mr Justice Johnston, Mr Reid." (Solicitor-General), and Mr Cumin (Law Draftsman). Hon members mus,t have, been struck by its lucidity ; arii'every ' student' df " jurisprudence must own the ''great "benefit derived frohi'a lupid codification of the laws of'a nation. If the House signalised itself by passing the Bill, posterity would •remember its labours with gr^itude'. Menjbers having.spoken ; The Ministei; o|;,iTustic.ef replied^ saying that if the , codification did nothing else, it would infuse some knowledge into the minds of hon members, with regard to the criminal lawt.. He twitted his legal friends in the House with < regard to their ignorance of the law, and said he, should'aluib&t' 1 fetei it ' his duty to warn' thg criminal classes of the Colony against them. He claimed thai the severe clauses objected to were rfeally lighter than under the existing law, and as to the extract .from. the Coercion' Act, it • had: been inserted in the draft code four years previous to the passing of that Act. The punishments in the Act were the'law of the land. ; Thervlaw of libel, especially; ex/ eluded 1 sellers of newspapers and publications, and as to the law of criminal evidence <jhe. Bill did. not deai'wiiJi.Qr .alter. • that .law JnVany respect.; He rebutted the various objections made against the measure and; qonol^ded by saying ; that \ any- ,- thing that would make the English law understandable ;^as a great reform, whioh was^fEe'quently objected to by Conservatiye^'teiongst whom lawyers might oftsnbe,'niirnberiE, TheßSyp^.^jß'ad!:jS^obnd;; ? time. The se6pndir^i^softjtie Alteration Prepij||oii^Billv the LutJatics Act Amendment s ß^l, the. Juries Act Amendmln't: ; Bjll, and the Small Birds Nujsap:de.fiillV were agreed to, The Hijmse rose at 12.50. a.m.