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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 933, 14 April 1879, Page 2

Ox Wednesday evening last Mr. Shrimski informed his constituents that 113 Acts were passed during the last session of Parliament. This he did with the object of proving that the session had not been so barren a3 some pec pie wished to imply ; and if the amount of actual governing done could be gauged by the growing plumpness of our volumes of laws, slv. Shrimski wa3 not far wrong. But, if last session is celebrated for the number of Acts which were passed during its course, the session of 1877 should be much more celebrated for tlio same reason, for it added 142 Acts to our multitudinous and obese Colonial statute books. A mania for making laws is notably a failing of Colonial statesmen, Mid amending them 3ceni3 to be the chief business of their office. Since the first session of Parliament in 1841, no less than 17*-> acts were passed, of which 20 were disallowed, 7. r »S were repealed by the Repealing Act, IS7S, No. 23, and 50 Inother Acts, and six have expired. There are. therefore, 042 in force. But, in counting the number of Colonial laws in existence, we should include a number of laws which Provincial Governments have bequeathed the Colony. The total number of Acts passed by Provincial Councils was of which r>7<> survive their framers. Ir is not a matter for surprise that the necessity for the Reprint of Statutes Act, 187*, suggested itself. When eli'ect has been given to this useful measure—-when the gnarled mass of Colonial laws has become disentangled, and the rank growth in which the roots and branches are buried is cut away—the legal profession and ordinary people will know more about the laws that are supposed to govern us. We subjoin a table showing the present position of the Colonial laws, to which must, of course, be added the large number of English laws in force in the Colony

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