A.—6.

Session 11. 1906. NEW ZEALAND.

"THE REPRINT OF STATUTES ACT, 1895" (FOURTH AD INTERIM REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS UNDER).

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

EEPOET.

T ° Excellency the Right Honourable Lord Plunket, K.C.M.G., K.C.V.O. Governor of the Colony of New Zealand. May it please Youe Excellency,— m n t ll tP«S'iS^"T d6rS i i i! ne l d ' hem? appointed under "The Reprint of fs to ourtroceedfngs "'* '° Excellenc y this further °* report We are pleased to be able to state to Your Excellency that, in spite of some delay caused by d\ ] uT bUSm ? SS m i h6 , CaSe ° f ° Ur Chairman - end of our labours is in sight, and we hope to be able to present our final report, with the accompanying Schedule of Bills, before the commencement of the next session of Parliament. «l m Under ° ur f h ! D ? e **"> statute-book in so far as relates to the public general Acts (with which £bt h .T ° do) ' 7 U T S u 8t o u. aboUt 18 ° Acts ' rained m about four volumes of about eight hundred pages each, and absorbing over eight hundred of the present Acts. Following the examples of the Victorian and New South Wales schemes (which adopted that of the Revised Statutes of the Imperial Parliament) we propose to omit the analysis of each Act, and substitute a complete index to each volume. u ' e * As regards the various Native Land Acts, they are so complex and involve so many difficult questions of implied repeal, and, moreover, are so far-reaching in their effect on title to land that we do not feel justified m attempting to consolidate them. We therefore propose to print them all amendment! ' mßßttins m itS pr °P er P laC6 in each Act . but in italic type, each specific W ,?n^ fUn f i 0n f h mite 5 ü by statute to the general public Acts, but we venture to suggest that foi umfoimity o system the local and pnvate Acts should be collected and printed in a supplementary volume. If this be done, all the existing statute-books can be dropped fi, ,l da . stmotl ° n between general public Acts on the one hand and local and private Acts on the other has not always been observed, and this creates a difficulty. As an example we may mention "The Nelson College Act, 1858," which is classed in the statute-book as pubhc genera? but is amended by the Act of 1882, which is classed as local. The course we propose to adopt In these cases is to treat as local or private, as the case may be, every Act which would be local or private under the Standing Orders now in force. To facilitate the enactment of our Bills we propose to prepare an enacting Bill with two schedules, the first containing a list o all the public general Acts we have consolidated, and the second the consolidating Bills themselves. The enacting measure will contain three clauses-one repealing the Acts specified in the First Schedule, one enacting the Bills mentioned in the Second bcnedule, and one containing full saving provisions. In terms of the statute under which our Commission is issued, we beg to draw attention to certain defects m the existing Acts, which in our opinion should be remedied by legislation. 1. " The Adoption op Childeen Act, 1895." There are two points in this Act which should be made clear :— (a) Section 7 says that when an adopting order has been made, then (with certain specified limitations as to property);'the adopted child shall for all purposes civil and criminal, and as regards all legal and equitable liabilities, rights, benefits, privileges, and consequences of the natural rela! tion of parent and child, be deemed m law to be born in lawful wedlock of the adopting parent " Presumably the Legislature did not intend by this to abolish the natural relation of consanfff m f y SL CftBe - 8 ™^ der the la , w gating to marriage, and it may be that the section has not that effect. The point, however, should not be left in doubt.