THE RAGE FOR LEGISLATION.

Colonist, Volume VI, Issue 597, 14 July 1863, Page 6

THE RAGE FOR LEGISLATION.

i ,;■ i(From the. Colonist, June 23:/ ' J A "Wellington- contemporary • from T.whoseV columns, we make an extract on SpecialJuries, -.concludes an article with a reference to the number of acts passed by the Colonial Legislature, which are as mischievous in their tendency, as unknown to the general public, and as unnecessary^ the act-for permitting charges of felony to be tried by special jury. There is no doubt a great deal of '■ truth in the remark that the Statute Book of the Colony is cumbered with a greatmanyi mischievous pieces of legislation, as unnecessary as they, are mischievous. It is impos- j sible to look over a year's enactments of the Parliament of New Zealand without discovering numerous instances of this. Something of the same kind may be said with equal truth regarding the many acts of the-Provin-cial Legislatures of the Colony. There-k too much law making, and too much tinkering of existing enactments, a tinkering-which not^ infrequently has to be undone the,M/ lowing session. Some men efroneouslyimagine because their constituents .:place them in a legislative position, be it. Provin-. cial or in the Legislature at Auckland, that therefore they are bound to make some show of business, and thereupon bills are pressed on, either personal or class, or to remove some 'trivial- discrepancy, which had better have remained untouched rather than that the funda^ mental principles of common law should.be shaken by an enormous multiplicity of special enactments. Of all. laws those inter-: feeing in any way: with trade are pernicious, Tjiejesfii;trade of.any kindiQitrejiQtedvupQ^

by legislation, the better for all concerned, the trader and dealer alike. Class legisla--1 tion has for years been the theme of reprobation, but instances are by no means infrequent of our legislators rushing into lawmaking for the special benefit of a class, and to the detriment of many others. "Witness for example the " Wool and Oil Securities Act, 1855," which, while giving a not unfair protection to persons advancing money to sheep owners, on security of the ensuing clip of wodl, opens a door by which a runholder driven to his last card could cause considerable loss to a purchaser who incautiously might buy sheep, over the wool of which a third party held a mortgage. This act invests the moveable property of sheep with the character of heritage, and so far is an unwise interference with the law of merchandise. "We do not enter into the particulars of the act beyond pointing out the fact alluded to. Many instances of worse than useless intermeddling with common and mercantile law might be cited; and the bungling character of this meddling is fully proved by the repeated acts to amend certain other amended acts of former sessions. The fewer laws we have -fche better, and the easier will they be administered. But if year after year the General Assembly (which Mr. Domett has prudently shut up for a session) andthevarious Provincial Councils shall continue as prolific as heretofore in the manufacture of laws, what will be the condition ten years hence of the general and provincial laws of New Zealand ? They will--grow into a labyrinth impenetrable to the >kefenest legal skill, because of their 4nultiplicity, diversity, and contradictory emendations. Both in the General and Provincial Legislatures, therefore, we trust in future to witness a considerable decrease in the ! amount of law manufactured by representative wisdom, which for several'years past, as the records of the different houses show, has invariably adopted the practice of piling act on act, and amendment on amendment^