STATUTE REVISION COMMISSION (REPORT OF THE).

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1883 Session I, A-09

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1883. NEW ZEALAND.

STATUTE REVISION COMMISSION (REPORT OF THE).

Presented to ioth Houses of Parliament by Command of Mis Excellency.

To His Excellency Sir W. I\ D. Jebvois, K.C.M.G., &c. Mat it please yotjb Excellency,— We have the honour to report that, by virtue of the Commission issued to us under " The Revision of Statutes Act, 1879," we have since last session of the General Assembly completed the following measures : — Ceihinal Code. 1. Referring to our observations on this subject contained in our general reports of the 27th May, 1880, 6th June, 1881, and 15th May, 1882, respecting our preliminary labours in discharge of the duty imposed upon us by " The Revision of Statutes Act, 1879," we have, in the further execution of our task, adapted and completed a criminal code from the Bill introduced into the Imperial Parliament in 1880. A full report is annexed to the code which we have prepared, and copious notes are appended thereto. "We respectfully beg to refer your Excellency to these documents for further information as to the nature and extent of our labours on this subject. New Consolidations. 2. We have also prepared the following new consolidation Bills which accompany this report, viz., — (1.) Counties, absorbing 6 Acts. (2.) Municipal Corporations, absorbing 7 Acts and 27 Provincial Ordinances. (3.) Property Law, absorbing 15 Acts. (4.) Trustee, absorbing 4 Acts. (5.) Crown Grants, absorbing 6 Acts. (6.) Savings-Banks (including Post-Office Savings-Banks), absorbing 5 Acts. (7.) Patents, absorbing 3 Acts. (8.) Sheriffs, absorbing 6 Acts. (9.) Execution of Criminals, absorbing 3 Acts. (10.) Police Offences, absorbing 3 Acts and 27 Provincial Ordinances. (11.) Public Libraries, absorbing 3 Acts. Besides the above are a few other Bills which, if time permits, we hope to be able to transmit to your Excellency early in the approaching session of Parliament. There; are some points affecting certain of these measures to which we beg to call your Excellency's attention. During last session an Act was passed amending, in several important particulars, the Counties Act of 1876; and, although the amending Act has had little time to operate, and the new Road Boards Act only came into force on the Ist January last, yet, as we were dealing with other Acts affecting local government, it seemed to us convenient that the Acts affecting counties should be consolidated. It will, of course, be a question for the Legislature to decide whether it is expedient this Bill should now be proceeded with, or a further period be allowed to elapse before passing it. The Municipal Corporations Bill is not open to the objection which arises in the case of the Counties Act, and we hope that in its new shape this Act may be found convenient to the bodies called upon to administer its provisions. Respecting the Property Law Bill, we may refer your Excellency to our report of the 15th May, 1882, in which reference was made to this subject, and to the work which we had performed. We then indicated certain measures which had been prepared upon the following subjects, viz., — Conveyancing, and Acts directly relating thereto. Landlord and Tenant. Leases and Sales of Settled Estates. Trustees and Mortgagees (including Trustee Acts and the general enactments relating to Religious, Educational, and Charitable Trusts). It was then proposed that certain amendments which had suggested themselves to our minds, upon a consideration of recent Imperial legislation not in force in the colony, should be adapted, and that further amendments contemplated in England should be introduced; and we intimated to your Excellency's predecessor that these Bills would be submitted at a later period of the then ensuing

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session of the General Assembly. During that session, however, measures were introduced which, had they been passed, would have materially modified the law as to several of the subjects we had proposed to deal with. However, upon fully considering the nature and extent of the powers vested in us, we came to the conclusion that, however desirable it might be to suggest for adoption amendments in the law which had been made in England within the last few years, yet, as the law both in England and in the colony may be described as being in a transition state, and as we were given to understand that the Government intend during the coming session to submit to the General Assembly certain measures affecting this branch of the law, it would not be expedient for us to carry out our original intention. Accordingly we have recast certain of these Bills, and this year submit two of them (the Law of Property and the Trustee Act), which merely consolidate the statute law now in force in the colony upon the subjects to which they relate, and as to which fuller information is given in the special report accompanying each Bill. How far it may be desirable that an enactment should be prepared embodying both the Imperial and local law as to property is perhaps not a matter upon which we are called upon to express an opinion. The task would be one of magnitude, and, at present, of doubtful utility, while so many questions which agitate the public mind remain unsettled. The other Bills prepared by us call for no general remarks. Full information respecting their details is given in the special report attached to each Bill. Genebal. 8. In our report of last year we referred to the fact that, with the exception of certain subjects, most of those which came within the scope of our duties had been dealt with. Of these exceptions, the principal laws affecting local bodies have now been prepared for consolidation. With respect to the statutes relating to the sale and disposal of Crown lands, to Mining, and to Native lands, we have been informed that your Excellency's Advisers are not prepared to submit to Parliament consolidating Bills on these matters at present. We have therefore refrained from the preparation of Bills on these subjects, which would have necessarily involved a considerable amount of useless labour. Respecting the law of evidence it would be easy to prepare a consolidation of the Acts in force in the colony; but we have not undertaken the task, as we understand it is proposed, at an early date, to codify the whole law on the subject. Recent enactments have changed the electoral law of the colony ; and, as each of these is complete in itself, there does not appear to us to be any need for consolidation. In conclusion, we think we may repeat what we stated last year —that, assuming the measures submitted with this report became law, the work of the Commission, in so far as consolidation is concerned, will close with the approaching session ; and, unless the Legislature resolves to the contrary, we would propose, after the session has ended, to complete our work by preparing a complete revieed edition of the statutes of the colony, as contemplated by the Revision of Statutes Act. As it is evident that, under the rapidly-changing circumstances of a colony like this, supplementary and amending legislation will necessarily be frequent, there is no finality in such a work as that in which we have been engaged, and we respectfully submit that no useful end will be gained by delaying the preparation of the complete edition alluded to, merely in order that certain new enactments which might be introduced into the consolidation Acts should be included therein, or because some of the statutes already passed will probably require amendment speedily. A. J. JOHNSTOIf. Wellington, 11th June, 1883. W. S. Reid.

Authority : G-eobge Didsbfet, Government Priuter, Wellington.—lBB3.