"ORGY OF LAWS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 205, 29 August 1936, Page 17

"ORGY OF LAWS."

INCREASING VOLUME.

MAGISTRATE'S SYMPATHY.

WITH THE LAYMAN. That even a magistrate, or lawyer may be ignorant of certain laws was admitted by Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., when speaking on "The Legal Machine" (states the "Dominion") at a luncheon of the Wellington Returned Soldiers' Association.

"A great deal -has been said in public, and probably a great deal more in private, about the orgy of laws and regulations, State, Departmental and municipal, that have been inflicted on the community during the last two or three decades, and in ever-increasing volume," said Mr. Luxford. "The average man resigns himself to such mercy as the Courts of justice will extend to him, because he feels inevitably, sooner or later, he must be caught in the meshes of the multitude of legal nets for ever being cast at him. Of course he tries to dodge them, and he has the assistance of an ancient and honourable profession to help him —for a consideration—in becoming more expert in the art.

"Quite frankly my sympathies go out to the layman, who is barred from pleading ignorance of the law, especially as I know that there is not a lawyer in practice who has not learned for tho first time when lie is instructed to defend the delinquent that penalties have been prescribed for certain acts or omissions. I might say, also, that a magistrate is sometimes in the same position when called upon to sit in judgment.

'"Still, that cannot properly he used in support of that ill-conceived proposition 'The Law is an Ass.' Kather it emphasises the multiplicity of activities, insejiarable from the dynamic conditions of modern life, that in the common interest must be controlled by legislative enactment.

Individualistic View. "One is apt to take an individualistic view of legislative requirements and restriction. 'What harm is there,' says John Citizen, 'if I do any one of the hundred-and-one things the law says I shall not do? Not much,' he will assure himself, and ho is quite right. But if he asks himself what harm will eventuate if everybody does the same thing, or even a large number of people do it, it will at once become apparent that what is merely a. comparatively trivial individual act becomes a serious evil and operates against the good order of society."

The law, like many other abstract and definite sciences, evolved by trial and error, and nobody would deny that there had been much error in the process, continued Mr. Luxford. But tho science of lawmaking was very different from tho definite sciences. The lawmaker had his precedents, but he had no laboratory in which to carry out experiments until each proposed law had been proved certain of operating for the betterment and advancement of the State. The acid test for every law was its effect upon the social, commercial and industrial structure of the State, and to ascertain that effect the law had to be put. into operation with tho attendant risk of disorganising the national machine.

The conservative mind very often thought "it is better to leave well alone," and abhorred the thought of new legislation. "Leave well alone" was a much-used phrase, and sometimes a very sound one, but often what was wanted to be left alone was far from well, or what was well to-day would not be well to-morrow. The wise lawmaker had to plan for the future as well as the present. irksome but Necessary. "I make no apology for saying that a great deal of the vast amount of legislative enactment in force to-day is necessary for the proper conduct of our national life, irksome though some of it may bo to individuals," said Mr. Luxford. "I freely admit imperfections and inconsistencies, and that in a few instances enactments have not kept abreast of the times and are inapplicable to modern conditions and thought.

"The ideal of lawmaking is to provide a code adaptable by all sections of the community, which should not require specific enforcement, but which should be followed by all spontaneously. That is an ideal at the present time incapable of fulfilment, but we have progressed toward the ideal much further than many people think."