A NEEDED REFORM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 14285, 1 February 1907, Page 6

A NEEDED REFORM.

The departmental ’ reform which was outlined by the' AttorneyGeneral in an interview with our representative yesterday is one that will commend itself to the whole colony. The defective drafting of the laws passed by the New Zealand Legist laturo has been a constant source of trouble and of expensive litigation during recent years. Year after year Parliament has been called upon to deal with amending Bills designed to make clear the meaning of Acts passed a twelvemonth before. The technical weaknesses may have been due to carelessness on the part of the law draftsmen who prepared the original Bills or to the amendments made by tho repre--sentatives of the pecple. In any case, the result has been eminently unsatisfactory. Supreme Court judges, acting no doubt in strict accordance with law, hare placed upon, new Acts interpretations that came as a complete surprise to the authors and the supporters of the J measures, and verbal flaws have rendered it possible for individuals to ignore the deliberate intention of the Legislature. The licensing legislation of the last decade has furnished many striking instance© of this legalised defiance of the people’s will. The new Attorney-General is a very capable lawyer, and he has lest no time in devising a remedy for these evils. He proposes to establish a Department of , Parliamentary Drafting and to make it I responsible for the technical accuracy I of all measures placed upon the Statute j Book of the colony. At the head of this ; Department will be placed one of tho ! colony’s highest authorities in matters of law. Under the new system, there- ! fore, the Government of the day will have tho services of a highly-qualified draftsman in, preparing its measures, and will be able to locate the blame definitely should any flaws be discovered after the Bills have readied the Statute Beck. The reform will conduce to efficiency and to economy, and will prevent a recurrence of difficulties that* have not been creditable to tho Legislature of the colonv.