A.—6b.

1908. NEW ZEALAND.

"THE REPRINT OF STATUTES ACT, 1895" (FINAL (SUPPLEMENTARY) REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS UNDER).

Laid on the Table of both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

To His Excellency the Right Honourable Lord Plunket, K.C.M.G., X.C.V.0., Governor of the Dominion of New Zealand. May it please Your Excellency,— We, the" undersigned, being the Commissioners appointed under " The Reprint of Statutes Act, 1895," have now the honour to submit our final report, which marks the completion of our labours :— The preparation of the five volumes of Consolidated Statutes which accompanied the report we had the honour to present to Your Excellency on the 28th July last was somewhat hurried in order that the work might be submitted to the Legislature at the earliest practicable date during the present session of Parliament. Our Act requires us to prepare and arrange the consolidated edition for publication; we therefore think it our duty to submit to Your Excellency the title-pages, indexes, and tables of titles and cross-references which form part of the edition. Part of the duty imposed upon us is to report the contradictions, omissions, and imperfections appearing in the existing Acts, and the mode in which they have been reconciled, supplied, and amended. We do not understand this to require us to specify every alteration or change we have made. The resources of the printing-office would be unequal to such a task, as, apart from numberless verbal alterations, many Acts are almost wholly recast. Such of them, however, as in our judgment are of sufficient importance to call for the attention of the Legislature are referred to in the Supplementary Statement appended to this report. We may explain that in the performance of our duties we have met with many obscure enactments, framed in ambiguous language, but it was only where the Legislature had in some way indicated its intention, either by express enactment or by clear implication relating to the same or a cognate subject, that we have ventured on amendment. To amend without such an indication would have gone beyond our powers, and altered the law where our duty was only to reproduce it. Still, it must be remembered that all consolidation in some degree implies a change of form. The Commissioners are also authorised to indicatej_uch Acts or parts of Acts as in their judgment ought to be repealed, with their reasons for such repeal, and may recommend the passing of such new enactments as in their judgment may be necessary. In previous reports which we have submitted to Your Excellency such recommendations have been made from time to time; others appear in the Supplementary Statement. Respecting the preparation and amendment of statutes, we think it expedient to offer the following general observations^: —

I—A, 6b.