[From the Government Gazette, July 20.] REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON ORDINANCES.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 416, 28 July 1849, Page 4

[From the Government Gazette, July 20.] REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON ORDINANCES.

The Committee appointed to consider and report upon the mode in which the Ordinances enacted by the Legislative Council of New Zealand, before the division of the colony into i rovinces, should be reprinted, have now the honor to recommend the adoption of the plan conveyed in the accompanying resolutions. The object of paramount importance in this matter is, in the opinion of the Committee, the reproduction of the Ordinances in such a form as will render an acquaintance with their provisions most easy of attainment by all whom they affect. To secure this it is necessary to present them in as compact and concise a shape as is consistent with completeness, and with the preclusion of any need of reference to other copies or collections of them. Anew arrangement and classification of the whole is another obvious means of attaining this end. The Committee have, therefore, recommended in the Ist place, the exclusion from the main body of the volume to be reprinted, of all Ordinances not at present in force, that is to say, of all disallowed, expired, or repealed ones. To these they have proposed to add all Ordinances the operation of which is confined to that of repealing others. But in order that a knowledge of the whole course of legislation in this colony, and the bearing of all the Ordinances upon each other may be attainable by all who for any reason desire it, and as besides it may be advantageous to shew on what subjects and in what manner legislation has been attempted, and either been condemned or failed, or ceased to be of use, they have recommended the reprinting of the titles and analyses even of the Ordinances thus excluded. All these latter they propose to print in an appendix to the main body of the volume. The next thing for consideration is the consolidation of different Ordinances upon the same subjects. Without doubt much trouble in reference, much repetition of details, much accumulation of matter, and consequent expense of printing, would be saved by the consolidation of many of the Ordinances with those which have been passed to modify and amend them. But as this would of course require the re-enactment by the Provincial Legislature of such Ordinances ; and as several of the subjects to which they relate have been placed beyond its legislative province by the Provincial Councils' Ordinance, which would necessitate the reprinting of all Ordinances upon such subjects in their original shape, and thus effectually destroy their general uniformity, the Committee propose to reprint the whole of these Ordinances as they stand, and to leave to a better arrangement and more complete indices the simplification of the work of consulting them which might otherwise have been effected by consolidation. The necessity for prolonging considerably the present session of ( Council, had the latter course been resolved upon, the great need of an immediate supply of fresh copies of the Ordinances, and the possible advantage of uniformity between the old copies and the new ones, weighed with the Committee in the adoption of this course. Your Committee, therefore, recommend that a sum of money sufficient to defray the expense of reprinting the Ordinances in the mode just stated be placed in a supplementary estimate for the purpose ; and that the Colonial Secretary and Attorney General be requested to superintend the details of the work, and its progress through the press ; in order that it may be issued with the authority of a Government publication. Alfred Domett, Chairman.