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issues of concern to the Crown arise in these actions and secondly, that any interests the Crown has can be adequately protected without the intervention of the Crown in the first instance.
4.
The main object of this Bill therefore is to abolish the statutory requirement of making the Crown a necessary party to every partition action. The Bill seeks to replace this requirement with a requirement for service of the relevant documents on the Director of Buildings and Lands in the first instance so that he will have notice of the intended partition. The Bill also provides the means for the Director to obtain more time, where necessary, to seek advice from or instruct the Attorney General. This is achieved by a provision allowing the Director to file a memorandum in Court upon which the proceedings will be stayed for a specified period of time. Allied to these measures is the provision enabling the Attorney General to be joined as a party at any stage in a partition action on his application.
5.
Sir, the amendments are sensible and straight- forward. The Crown will no longer have to be a party. If the Attorney General needs to intervene in the public interest, the right to do so is expressly reserved. Costs to the public purse or to the private litigants involved will be saved. It
benefits everyone.
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