BURDENSOME LAWS

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 300, 18 December 1931, Page 5

BURDENSOME LAWS

Statute Books Vary Greatly in Size. A NATIONAL AMUSEMENT. A glance into the row of volumes containing the New Zealand statutes will lend a good deal of substance to the remark of a layman recently that the laws of the country are made for lawyers, and that Parliament, in the more prosperous years, amuses itself by making more laws. The laws of New Zealand, passed by the various governing bodies prior to 1908, are contained in five volumes. They are fairly substantial volumes, but not as large as some containing the doings of Parliament for one year. The statutes from 1922 to date are about the same size ► as all the statutes of all the years before put together. The volume for 1928 contains 800 pages. It is a weighty tome, but its bulk may partly be accounted for by the consolidations of a number of amending Acts into a new complete Act. An Act is originally passed, fcay in 1910. From time to time successive Parliaments add little bits br take little bits away, and the text pf the Act becomes almost" smothered in red ink and paper slips from the man who does the annotation. Some-

body gets tired of delving in this colourful display, and Parliament sets work to pass a new Act incorporating all the amendments. The annotation then goes on again. The Lean War Years. The years of the war curiouslv enough produced only slim books o'f statutes. The year 1914 was a good fat one, because the war did not get into its stride until after the politicians had started, but the four >ears after that must have been regarded as thin ones by the Government Printer. The books are little more than 200 pages, but, after that, amendments, new Acts, and consolidations thicken the volumes to round about 800 pages. Last year, probably reflecting the stormy sessions, the House in Wellington produced only a very small volume, again a little over 200 pages. The complaint that the laws are made in a form that only a lawyer can unravel appears to have some substance. An amendment to an Act may perfectly easily be included in the Washing Up Bill, where it is lost to all who have not the interest or sagacity to dig it out. The layman may quite easily decide, after looking at the Statute Book, that a certain course of action is legal, but later find that the clauses has been amended, and that his conduct is ultra vires in the extreme. This position is impossible to avoid,” said a lawyer. “ Unless, of course, it was decided to print every statute again every year. The layman would then have everything £>efore him.” Under the present system, which seems to work fairly well, the governance of the country goes smoothlv most of the time. The layman, anxious of avoiding trouble, general! l .' consults a lawyer who is trained in fossicking after obscure amendments.