INTERPRETATION OF THE LAW.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 193, 14 August 1909, Page 8

INTERPRETATION OF THE LAW.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I was pleased to read your remarks on the reading of the law. As a member of a local body I know how difficult it Is to interpret some of the laws (that adorn the statute boo_: of the Dominion. I have no hesitation in saying that Old Harry himself could not interpret some of the laws that have been framed by our legislature, let alone his children. I know from experience that if some of the knotty points of our laws are submitted to, say, three of our leading legal Arms in Auckland, that you will not get two opinions alike, especially laws relating to local bodies; and if a local politician undertakes to study some of the local body statutes he will begin to think that he has been for a trip round the moon in an airship, and he will find it will be necessary to lie down with a wet towel around hi 3 head before he returns -to his normal condition. I was speaking to a shareholder in a company the other day, and he told mc that his company had occasion to find fault "with the action of the managing director, and the shareholders obtained the opinion of two leading members of the legal profession, and one advised that no action could be taken, and the other advised to issue a writ at once. Now, sir, I think this is a very unsatisfactory state of things. It seems 'to mc that a great many of our statutes are enacted for the special benefit of newspaper proprietors and lawyers. If a' local b-dy ■wishes to pass a simple by-law, they must first expend a certain amount of money in advertising and legal advice. Now, Sir, I a_ of opinion that if our legislators, after dealing with the important question of our land laws, were to devote the remaining portion of the next session to making our present statutes a little more comprehensive, they would confer a very great boon on the people of this Dominion, and hand down their names to posterity as having done something to warrant the name ox legislators.—l am, etc., GEORGE W_L___NSON. \ __lerslle.