Intelligible Law.

Manawatu Herald, 10 June 1893, Page 2

Intelligible Law.

The appeal made by Mr Williams to Mr Wilson on Thursday night to get the Government to frame intelligible laws was not so out of the way as it first sounded. It is admitted on all sides that the interpretation of the law is a heavy undertaking, so much so that the cleverest lawyers and the wisest judges frequently differ upon its meaning. When this is the case who can blame a layman for not keeping to the 1 strict letter of the law? We however do not think this was qnite what Mr Williams was driving at. He wants the law as it is, reasonable or unreasonable, digested and written in a plain narrative so that he who runs may read. In some cases this has been attempted to be done as instanced in the guide to the Land Acts published by the Government, and by other digests on the Licensing and Local Bodies laws, by private persons. To- the Act however each inquirer must go at last as being the foundation of the digests and there he will get bandied about from section to section, until he gets somewhat, if not totally, bewildered. And why is.it that the laws are turned loose upon the public in this unsatis factory manner ? The : fault lies with the Government and Parlia- ; ment; with the Government tor acceptiug amendments to their Bills without stipulating that such amendments shall be first considered by their law advisers ; and with the members of Parliament who insist in certain amendments to particular sections without consideration to their bearing to the Bill as a whole. Immense sums of money would be saved in litigation if more care and time was spent in fiarain<* Bills: . ;• r

'What would meet with the strongest approbation on the part of the public would be a careful consolidation of the laws to date, and such a proposal was entertained, and we believe partly carried out, when it got wrecked over some alterations suggested in the consolidated law at variance with the laws then in force. It is always time to push this view before our Eepresentatives, and as it is more especially to the labpuringman's advantage.' the present Go> vernment should give it their earnest attention. Mr Wilson was correct when he stated, in answer to the question, that it was impossible to guarantee that even the simplest law could be so explained as to make it intelligible to some persons. -