MERCANTILE LAW IN N.Z.

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 433, 15 August 1928, Page 12

MERCANTILE LAW IN N.Z.

A VALUABLE PUBLICATION SIGNED primarily to meet the requirements of the law student, Mr. P. R. Waddy's recent publication, “Mercantile Law of New Zealand,” satisfies a long-felt want in commercial circles. In a compact volume of approximately 600 pages the author deals with, and provides the answer to, many of the legal problems which regularly come before the average business man for solution. The compilation is essentially a New Zealand one, and a special effort seems to have been made to bring it up-to-date. A notable feature of the work is the elimination of tedious and unnecessary details. No basic principles, however, have been passed over. Under the head of Mercantile Law the author deals with general principles in regard to contracts, agency, partnership, insurance, shipping, mortgages, arbitration and awards in a clear and concise manner that makes available to the busy commercial man much valuable information which, in many text-books, is hidden amid a mass of legal pliraseologj r , unintelligible to the ordinary man in the street. In other words, the business man is offered, in one volume, information which in most instances is only obtained as a result of many conferences with his solicitors. A special section is devoted to the rights and duties of trustees under wills. This deals with all forms of trusts, the administration of estates, liability of trustees, distribution of intestate estates, death duties, the Family Protection Act, and the Law of Apportionment. The rights of receivers are also outlined. In these days of time-payment systems and many other forms of extended credit, the section dealing with the general application of the principles of the Bankruptcy and Chattels Transfer Acts and their various amendments is of special interest to the commercial man. The main principles of the Acts are clearly outlined and given increased prominence by the enumeration of cases that have actually been decided in New Zealand and elsewhere. Shorn of unnecessary and bewildering details, the general principles of the Companies Act and its amendments, with special attention to the formation, reconstruction and wind-ing-up of companies, and the rights of shareholders are given in a section dealing with the law of joint stock companies.

The work is one well worth a place in the office of all progressive business houses.