PARLIAMENTARY DRAFTING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 14285, 1 February 1907, Page 7

PARLIAMENTARY DRAFTING.

A NEW DEPARTMENT TO BE CREATED. • PROPOSALS OF; THE;'ATTORNEYGENERAL. The Attorney-General (the Hon Df Findlay), informed a representative of the “Lyttelton Times” last evening that he proposed to reorganise that branch of his Department that deals with the drafting of Parliamentary Bills. A new Department, the Parliamentary Drafting Department, is to be created, and will bo placed under the control of Professor W. T. Salxnond,’ Lecturer on Law at the Victoria College, Wellington. All Bills, before they go to the Legislature and again before they are sent on to the Governor for his final assent, will pass through the hands of this-Department in order that technical flaws may be detected and necesary' verbal amendments made, and the Minister hopes by these means to avoid the litigation and trouble that have been caused by faulting drafting in the past. 1 “In the past,” said the Minister, “ the Government has bad to pay to outside counsel large 1 sums f° r the drafting of important measures, and it has come to see that this expense may be avoided by the appointment of some highly qualified lawyer who will undertake all such work. A Parliamentry Drafting Department will he created under my administration, and Professor Salmond has been offered the position of counsel to that Department. Subject to the acceptance of his resignation' by the authorities of Victoria 1 College, he will take the appointment; The Professor is probably the greatest jurist that we have ever had in New Zealand, and he is the author of legal text-books that are recognised as the best works of their kind ever written! He was the draftsman of the South Australian Constitution, and is probably the most learned lawyer in the colony at the presnt time outside th« Bench. 1, believe that the difficultiel that have arisen in the past in regard to the legal shape of the Government policy measures will be avoided under the new arrangement. It would be invidious to point to the amount of litigation that has resulted in this colony from imperfect or indifferent draftsmanship. I propose to require that every Bill coming before me in my official capacity as Attorney-Gene-ral shall have attached to It some sort of certificate from the head of the Parliamentary Drafting Department, and J am confident that with Professor Salmond in the position we will have the best security against slip-shod draftsmanship that wo can at present obtain in . New ‘ Zealand.” In answer to questions regarding the details of the scheme, the Minister said that many of the verbal and technical weaknesses had crept in when the House was amending the Bills as originally drafted. As Attorney-General he would be required bo certify to Bilk after they had been passed by the Legislature and before they had gone bo the Governor for the Royal assent. He would place each Bill before the new Department before he certified to it, and if any weak points were discovered ho would take steps to make the necessary amendment by- means of a Governor’s Message,' He added_ that during the absence of the SolicitorGeneral from New Zealand, he proposed bo ask Dr Salmond to temporarily fill the position.