INTERCOLONIAL LEGISLATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 1001, 2 May 1871, Page 4

INTERCOLONIAL LEGISLATION.

♦ The Melbourne correspondent of the Otago Daily Times, writing on April 20, saya : — As chief amongst matters of intercolonial iutc-rest, I may refer to the report of the Royal Commission on the subject of Intercolonial Legislation and the establishment of a Colonial Court of Appeal. This report haa just been presented to the Governor, and is eeen to deal exhaustively with the whole subject, issuing in several recommendations of a thoroughly practical nature. The special subjects on which the Commission were requested to report were: — The extradition of offenders from one colony to another; the providing of means whereby the effect of insolvency or the granting of probate or letters of administration in one colony shall be extended to all; the adoption of a system whereby execution may issue in any colony upon the registration of the judgment of the Supreme Court of any other colony; and the establiefc-Jment of an Intercolonial Court of Appeal The importance of these subjects to the well-being of the various colonieß of the Australasian group is obvious to all, the inconveniences which result from the present imperfect state of the law regarding them are only too well known. It is also clear that a common understanding on thene matters and the settlement of a general arrangement with regard to them, would be a great step towards the federation which statesmen in all of the Australian colonies look on to. In respect to the first of these points— the extradition of offenders — it is recommended by the Commission so to alter the law that a warrant issued in one colony may be executed in another upon being merely endorsed by a magistrate of the colohy in which it is sought to enforce it. In dealing with the injustice and embarrassments occasioned by the present state !of our intercolonial law concerning insolvency, the report advises that the registration of an i insolvent's estate, and the gran ing of a certificate in any one colony, shall form a bar to any further proceedings against him j in another colony for the recovery ■of

debts due at the time of his insolvency. It ii further proposed to make executions issuee in one colony valid in the others by means o a system similar to tbat by which Irisl judgments are made effective in England bj means of registration. In this manner th< repetition of expensive and unnecessary lega processes in neighbouring colonies would b( prevented. Similarly, probates and letters o administration granted in one colony would under proper checks, be made of equal forci in all. The most important of the recom mendations of the Commission is that rela tive to an Australian Court of Appeal Although the extreme delays attendant or appeals to the Judicial Committee of. the Privy Council have been very painfull) felt in the different colonies, many diffl culties have been seen as impeding the only apparent remedy — tbe establishment of an Australian Appeal Court. The mutua! jealousy of the colonies, for instance, was sure to raise the question as to where the sittings of the Court should be held, and many other similar questions were certain tc crop up. With regard to this, the Report advises that the Court should be an itinerant one, sitting one year in one colony and the next in another. Of course, these recommendations can only receive effect hy common legislative action of the differen 1 colonies. The report is valuable as affording a sketch of the legislation necessary to admil of tbe realisation of what all allow to be s desirable object, and may perhaps in aftei times be looked upon as the first practical steps taken towards the union and consolidation of the colonies of Australia.