THE LAWS OF NEW ZEALAND.

Westport Times, Volume 1, Issue 133, 3 January 1868, Page 2

THE LAWS OF NEW ZEALAND.

Mr Justice Johnston, in Bis address to the Grand Jury at the assizes in Wellington, last week, made the following comments on the results of the legislation of the General Assembly during the past session: —" The session, from whatever point of view it was looked at, had been a session than which none more important had taken place since the country had received free institutions. But to judges and other persons engaged in the administration of justice by far the most important part of the work of the season was the revision and, to a certain extent, the consolidation of the criminal statutes into a few acts, which could not but prove as beneficial to this community as they had been found in the mother country, where the work of consolidation, or at all events, of attempted consolidation, of the statute law, for he did not say the common law, because not much progress had been made in that direction—the great work of consolidating the written law had been going on in England for some twenty years, and the only portion of it completed, or anything like completed, is that which appertains to the statute law relating to indictable offences. But let us not be so absurd as to take credit to ourselves for the new Acts which are now in our Statute Book ; they are the results of the twenty years labor of a serious of commissions formed by the ablest English lawyers. He believed the existence of many years of these Acts to be owing—for let honor be given where honor was due—to a gentleman whose name would not be familiar to them, but who was well known to all English lawyers as that of one of the most profound lawyers of the day —he meant Mr Greaves, Q.C., who had shaped, and he believed had drafted, a good many of these English Acts, many of which had been, since the first of last month, the law of New Zealand. He did not say that the whole of the criminal law was fully consolidated and perfected; and no doubt one great step had now been made towards that object which in a new country, eveu more than an old one, was very desirable, something in the shape of a consolidation of the law, No doubt those gentlemen who are connected with the Government of New ' Zealand have taken care that these Acts are adapted to the particular exigencies of the colony. He had not been able to go through them all, but the work seemed to have been satisfactorily done. He might mention that he had reasons to believe that steps had been taken to complete the work by publishing a digest of the statutes, so as to make them easy to be understood by everybody. He would now refer to the principal of these Acts. One Act deals with larceny and such offences as housebreaking, burglary, as well as embezzlement, and getting money on false pretences, a very large body of offences as would be seen. Another Act deals with malicious injuries to property, such as arson and : cognate offences, maliciously breaking . down buildings, &c. Another Act, ; and one to which he noticed the attention of the public had been directed, i was the Coinage Offences Act. The ; Act in one respect seems to have • [ created some alarm, as if some ne*

law bad been enacted in Now Zealaud. The law was in no respect changed ; it wis exactly the same as before j and practice bad shown that a man did not incur any great danger in using the coins about which the alarm had arisen. Coinage Acts were of 'Comparatively little importance here, because, ho was happy to say, there was no large section of the community who manufactured base coin, and from the circumstances of the country it would probably be so for some time. The manufacture of base coin at home was a thoroughly organised matter — the business of any great bank or army was not more so. The solicitors of the Treasury could give the jury a bead roll of almost every persou who was engaged in the manufacture and preparation of the base coin. This fact was thoroughly well known to the police. There was very little prospect that for a long time to come that such organisations would be found in this colon}, though how the case might stand in other colonies he -was not prepared to say. One Act, and an Act of supreme importance to a commercial community, was an Act relating to forgeries; another, concerned the trial of accessories and abettors ; while another, and one important for them to consider, was an Act comprising all kinds of injuries to property. Those were the principal Acts of the body of law which had come into force since they last met. lie must point out with regard to the introduction of these Acts that offences committed before the first of November were to be treated as offeneas committed under the old Act, as the new Act did not come into operation until that time. But they would be good enough to receive it from him, as a matter of law, that with regard to the cases which would be of no consequence. Before proceeding to the calendar he might be expected to allude to those pieces of legislation connected with the administration of justice and other important matters connected with the peace and commercial enterprises of the colony, but he feared that if he did so, he might weary them; and, moreover, he did not feel very competent to do so, as ho only received very lately a great number of Acts. He was sure that it must be a source of regret to the Legislature and the Government that the inhabitants of the country were liable to laws of the existence of which they were not aware. From the past habits of legislation, Acts had come into force before •it was physically possible that they could be known by the people. This was an absurdity which he was sure the good sense of the Legislature would speedily remedy. There was one matter which affects all classes, and more especially a class which was well represented in the jury box—the new system of bankruptcy. He did not pretend, and never did pretend, to have any special commiu'cial knowledge that should lead bin to julge either as to the propriety or the policy of different schemes of bankruptcy management, or the practicability of its working in a commercid aspect. It might be that this new Act, which he understood was taken from an Act recently passed in the mother country, was, as respected both commercial policy and true principle, a most admirable scheme ; but as he had not had an opportunity of carefully examining the Bill, he could not speak positively on one side or the other. But it might be an admirable statute as respects policy as far as it regarded a settled country; but there were so many different circumstances in a new country that, from want of the necessary machinery for working, it might be found that the system would almost break down under its own weight while, on the other hand, it might turn out to be a scheme excellent in principle and practice in the mother country, but not quite so applicable to this country. But as the present system has been found perfectly unsatisfactory 'and inefficient, probably ths worst that would happen woulu be after the new system had been tried and found inapplicable to the circumstances of the colony it would have to be done away with. He could not help feeling doubtful ofits success when he found certain duties cast opon officers of that Court which it was perfectly certain that it was physically impossible to discharge—unless, indeed, it should turn out that under the passing of this Act, which it was certain had not been the case before, the creditors of nonpaying estates would not trouble themselves ; he was, therefore, afraid that the amount of labor and anxiety thrown upon the officers of that Court would prevent them performing other and more important duties. It was, however, the duty of the officers of the Court and ot all other persons, to carry out to the best of thsir ability the intentions of the Legislature.

DEEP LEADS. Tho following leiter is by Mr Selwyn, on the subject of the probability of deep leads of gold underlying the Gipps Land plains : " Geological Survey Offices, Melbourne, sth November, 1867.—Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th ult., referring to the probability of deep leads of gold underlying the Gipps Land plains. One of the primary essential conditions for the existence of leads of gold is that the superficial deposits forming the plains should be underlayed by the gold and quartzbearing slates, &c, of the silurian formations, without the intervention of any newer formations, such as the coal-bearing rocks that extend from Westernport Bay to Traralgon, &c, and the (probably Devonian) rocks that form all the high country from Ben Cruachan and Mount Wellington eastward to the Mitchell about Mortun Creek and Lindenow. Now, if we draw a line from the Moe to Heyfield, thence to Ben Cruachan and Mount Wellington, and thence south-easterly to Lindenow and the coast, the whole of the country lying south of that line is most certainly underlaid by rock belonging to one or other, or even both of the newer formations before mentioned, and therefore though small particles of fine gold might be found over the level country, brought down, as you suggest, by the rapid streams that take their rise in the slaty gold quartz bearing ranges to the north, it is improbable, if not indeed impossible, that rich leads would be found inside or south of the line indicated. lam tolerably well acquainted with all the Gipps Land rivers, having personally examined portions of all of them, including those you mention. I have also examined the plains and the surrounding ranges, with special reference to the probable extension of goldfields under the plains, and this examination enables me to predict, for the reasons above mentioned, that there is no probability whatever of any such extension. On the enclosed map 1 have drawn a black line AAA round the country I refer to, and inside this line there is, in my opinion, no probability whatever of remunerative gold workings being discovered. The two rough sections show below the way in which the rocks lie, and how under the country referred to the gold rocks are buried far beyond the reach of the prospectors' pick or boring rods.—l have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, A. 11. C. Selwtx. You are at liberty to make any use you please of this letter, or to show it to any of the gentlemen who wish to prospect for deep leads on the Gipps Land Plains. To Mr N. W. Thomas, Bussell's Creek, Tangil Biver, Gipps Land."