Hawke's Bay Herald. FRIDAY. AUGUST 20, 1886. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7549, 20 August 1886, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. FRIDAY. AUGUST 20, 1886. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Tiik most marked feature of the closing week of the Parliamentary session was the action of the Legislative Council with respect to several bills, but wore especially the Special Powers and Contracts Bill. No doubt many members of -the House felt not unnatural irritation at the wholesale excision of clauses from this bill, and unthinking persons outside seized the opportunity to raise a silly cry against the Upper Chamber. Yet, though regret may be felt that certain clauses were not passed, there can be no questioning the fact that the action of tho Council was a .vigorous protest against a most vicious system of legislation. The Special Powers and Contracts Bill is a measure annually introduced at the fag-end of the session in New Zealand, anil it is a measure which, we believe, is altogether peculiar to New Zealand. It had its origin in what may be called the Board of Works functions of Parliament. Our Legislature is not merely a legislative body— it administers largo public works generally undertaken ' by private com - panicS in other countries. At the starting of the Public Works policy it was i found that in accepting certain contracts I and doing other necessary acts Ministers had to exceed their constitutional powers, and accordingly tiie Special Powers and Contacts Bill was devised as a kind of validating measure. But it has gradually grown in its scope until it has become a veritable hotch-potch of legislative odds and ends. This year there were clauses authorising tho sale of property owned by the Oddfellows' Society in Napier, the confiscation by the local body of the property of a dead man at Waipawa, the raising of a municipal loan, the power to levy special local taxation, and many other things, while other clauses actually .proposed amendments in the Municipal' Corporations Act and Regulation' of Local Elections Act. To ask the Governor to assent to such a moss of legislative pottage. is to put him in a false position, inasmuch as it is directly contrary to his instructions. In the course of tlio debate on the bill in the House Mr Downie Stuart pointed this out, and tcad from the "Instructions" issued to Governors of constitutional colonies the following clauso : — '

In tho execution of such powers as arc vested in the Governor by lnw for asMon ting to or ilksentin^ from, or of reserving for the signification of Our pleasure bills which luive been passed by the Legislature of that colony, he shall take care, so far as may he 1 pnicticahlo, that in the iwssing of all laws each different; matter bo provided for by a different law, without intermixing in one and tho saino law such things as have no proper relation to eaeli other, and that no clause be inserted in or annexed to any law which shall bo foreign to what the title of such law imports, and that no perpetual clmi.se bo part of any temporary law.

Ami this is v, niost salutoiy rule to prevent unnecessary ivml avoidable confusion in legislation. Laws, to Uo

effective, Be 3 siriip'ie, v diyeet; and" easily referred to. But who would think , of looking in a Special Powers and Contracts; Act "for an amendment of the Municipal Corporations Act or the Regu-"' ktion'of Local Elections Act ? There is far too much of this confusion in. legislation already. One never feels sure tliat lie is., obeying the law. .He may see- an . Act for a particular purpose, and then lie-may-search the titles of all Acts passed sincer- nnrt ' find no Amendment • Act. Naturally he concludes the Act he sees constitutes the law, and acts accordingly,' perhaps to find out, at heavy cost to ■ himself) that in some Special Powers and Contracts, Act, ,or some other equally foreign measure, the law has been altered. Tlio index of" the names of Acts should be •an index of their contents, but it is not so at present,, though tho Consolidation Acts passed during the last four years have done something in the right direction. 'As a sample ; of this Blip-shod manner of legislating the Land Tax-Act of 1879 may he quoted. That Act was repealed d year* or two later, but there is no Land Tax Bepeal Act on the Statute-book. TheAct was repealed by a clause in the Pro- ' perty Tax Act, if memory serves us rightly. In the interests of sound law, and simple legislation— which are the interests of the community—the Legislative Council, is to be Ibanked for the stand it took on the Special Powers and Contracts Bill this year, and it is to be hoped that in future each matter requiring; to be dealt with will be embodied in.a separate measure, and not bound with a bundle of others into a legislative faggot to the confusion of gods and men.