The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo, FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1890.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 174, 25 July 1890, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo,

FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1890.

For the cause that Jacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, Tor the future in the distance, And the good that we oau do.

Of the making of laws there is no end. Perhaps this is not marvellous considering the large number of lawyers -in the House of Representatives, but the fac t is becoming a serious one ior the people who have to live under and avoid the multiplying legal pitfalls for the un wary; and the suggestion that lawyer s shall be disqualified from holding seats in Parliament, which is now regarded as a joke, may yet have to be taken up jn earnest, as a measure of self-protec-tion. WOne of the most extraordinary products of legal ingenuity for the promotion of litigation and the production of fees, has been introduced into the House this session under the title of *' The Building Lien Act, 1890." That there may be room for some simple measure enabling contractors to levy upon buildings erected by them is not unlikely, but this Bill contains within the compass of twenty-one clauses, more quirks and quibbles, and probably opens the door for the perpetration of more frauds, than any other Bill that was ever introduced into a Nineteenth Century legislature. The man who ventured to accept a contract for the erection of any building under the conditions imposed by this Act, ought to be locked up in a lunatic asylum. The provisions of clause 3 will sufficiently indicate the exhilarating situation in which a person who had the temerity to commence building operations if this Act became law would be placed : 3. Every artisan, builder, contractor, mechanic, labourer, timber merchant, and other person whosoever performing labour upon or furnishing materials of any kind to bo used in a building, shall have a lien upon the same for the labour done or bhe materials furnished respectively, whether done or furnished at bhe instance of the owner of the building or his agent. Every such lien shall be in the nature of a charging lien, and ib shall nob be necessary to the efficacy thereof that possession of tho building or of the land affected should be or have been retained by tiie person entitled bo the lien. For the purposes of this Acb, every contractor, cub • contractor, architect, builder, or obher person having Charge of bhe construction, alteration, or repair, in whole or in part, of any building, shall be deemed bo be the agent of the owner of such building. The last paragraph is perhaps the most brilliant of all. By its comprehensive phraseology, not only does the person letting a contract become liable (or the orders of his architect, but for the orders which any contractor, sub-con-tractor or other individual "on the job" may choose in the fulness of his heart to give Each in law is to become " the agent of the owner of such building." He may have had no voice in their appointment—may not even know their names—that is quitetimmaterial; hot only are the orders which they may choose to issue leviable on the building for which the materials were presumably required, but the land itself r is to stand subject to the lien, " and all liens created by this Act ishall be preferred to all prior liens, mortgages, or other encumbrances upon the land on which the building shall have been constructed or is situated when altered or repaired." The remainder of the Bill is made up of delightful piocesses of litigation, the nature of which may be gathered from an enumeration of a few of the side notes: "Procedure to claim a lien," "Procedure on filing claim," "Fees," "Notice. Attachment of moneys," " Lien a chattel interest and not assignable," " Lien may be entered as a caveat or registered," " Lien to be enforced by action in any Court of competent jurisdiction," "Costs of filing lien may be recovered," "Parties to actions," and so forth. How the astute draftsman's mouth must have watered with agreeable anticipations of fat fees for the profession as he penned these delicious clauses. We fear, however, that he is doomed to disappointment. The members of Parliament, are not all lawyers, nor have they wholly lost their senses; it is inconceivable that such a Bill can pass. The legitimate protection of subcontractors can be amply secured without any alteration of the law if architects' choose to follow the English custom of subdividing their work, and letting tenders direct to the various branches of trade represented in a building. As for timber merchants, they must incur the same risks that othir tradesmen take. They are not bound to give credit; if they choose to give it without obtaining an order by the contractor upon the moneys accruing to him that is their own look out. They are no more entitled to special protection than the butcher and baker who supply the contractor and sub-contractor with provisions during the continuance of the .job. ; . ' ',-.. ...,• ~., ,