REPORT.

The Select Committee of the House of Representatives, appointed 18th June, 1856, for the purpose of considering what Acts, Ordinances and other public documents should be reprinted, have considered the matter to them referred, and have agreed to the following report :— From enquiries made by your Committee, it appears that the 8 vo. edition of the " Ordinances of New Zealand," which has been very generally distributed throughout the Colony, is now nearly, if not altogether, out of print. Your Committee understand, moreover, that it is in the contemplation of the Executive Government to prepare during the approaching recess, a consolidation of the laws comprised in the above edition, and to propose in consequence in the ensuing session, the repeal or amendment of such Ordinances as the lapse of time has rendered inapplicable to the present condition of the C olony. Under these circumstances, your Committee are of opinion that it would not be expedient to incur the expense of reprinting this entire collection of Ordinances, of which a considerable number will probably in the ensuing session be removed from the Statute Book. Of the Ordinances passed, subsequently to the publication of the edition above referred to, in the eleventh and twelfth sessions of the Legislative Council of New Zealand, but few copies were originally printed, and they have obtained therefore, but a very limited circulation. Some of these laws have already been either entirely or partially repealed, and others are not of sufficient general importance to render their immediate reprinting necessary. It appears, however, to your Committee, that the following, viz. :—" Writ of Arrest Ordinance," " Interpretation Ordinance," " Duties of Customs Ordinance," " Building and Land Societies Ordinance," " Licensing Amendment Ordinance," should without delay be reprinted with a view to their general circulation. Any further reprint of the laws of the Colony, your Committee are of opinion should be deferred for the present. JOHN IIALL; Chairman. House of Representatives, July 1856.