§ MR. HOWELLI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, in view of the publication of a revised edition of the Statutes, and the desirability of there being a reduction in bulk of the "Statutes in force," the Government will consent to the appointment of a Select Committee, to confer with the Statute Law Committee as to the practicability of further consolidating the Statute Law, and of repealing old, virtually obsolete, and spent Statutes, and thus purge the Statute Book of such matter as may be deemed to be no longer needed in a collection of the Statutes?
§ MR. W. H. SMITHI have communicated with the Statute Law Revision Committee, and with the permission of the House I will read a letter I have this afternoon received from the Chairman, Lord Thring, who is well known to hon. and right hon. Members as the able and conscientious draftsman to successive Governments, and who now gives his valuable services to the Revision Committee. The letter is as follows:— 757
On behalf of the Statute Law Committee, I beg to thank you for having afforded us the opportunity of considering the subject of Mr. Howell's question to the Government.We welcome most heartily the prospect of the encouragement and assistance which would be afforded by the appointment of a Committee of the House of Commons to deal with the subjects upon which we have laboured; and we should be very glad to learn that there would be submitted to them the Bills whose preparation we have advised and superintended, and the passing of which would enhance so greatly the value of the new edition of the revised Statutes now making rapid progress.Such a manifestation of the desire of the House that the several Bills (as well for the repeal of obsolete enactments as for the consolidation of scattered Statutes) which have been prepared for the different Departments of the Government should be presented without delay and referred to the proposed Committee would be of inestimable value in furthering the work, and the Bills would return to the House after examination by that Committee with an authority which we cannot claim for our unassisted labours.I have only to add that my own services and those of the other members of the body of which I am Chairman will be entirely at the disposal of the Committee if appointed.I shall place myself in communication with hon. and right hon. Gentlemen opposite, with the view of obtaining their concurrence in the appointment of a Committee to deal with Consolidation and Statute Law Revision Rills, so as to secure the passing of measures for the declaration and improvement of the law which are of great public utility and are altogether devoid of any political or Party character.