Providing Public With Copies of Acts

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 60, 12 March 1938, Page 4

Providing Public With Copies of Acts

MINISTER EXPLAINS DELAY Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Last Night. When the House met at 2.30 Air. T. D. Burnett (Opp.—Temuka) asked an urgent question of the Prime Minister whether provision would be made in future that Acts passed by Parliament would not come into effect until they had been made available to the public by the Government printing office. He instanced the case of the Fair Rents Amendment Act, which came into force at the beginning of December and was not available to the public until the end of January. The Prime Minister. Hon. M. J. Savage, in reply, said the Acts Interpretation Act, 1924, provided that every Act assented to by the GovernorGeneral that did not prescribe a time from which it was to take effect should come into operation on the day on which it received the Governor's assent. It was not proposed to amend this Act in the direction suggested. After outlining causes of delay through pressure of work at the Government printing office in. making copies of the Act available to the public, Mr. Savage added that he could assure Mr. Burnett that the necessity for supplies of Acts being available to the public as soon as possible after they came ino operaion was fully appreciated and every effort would be made to reduce to a minimum the time taken in printing supplies.