CO885-(7-8) — Page 289

INTRODUCTION.

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TTTTTIC.O.885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

appear with as

I have every wish to let the draft code little comment as possible, but since it may come into the hauds of some readers without any official introduction, I will indicate, as shortly as I can, the purpose for which it is designed, the authorities on which I have relied for its construc- tion, and the use I have made of those authorities.

The purpose for which the draft is designed is as follows. For soine time it has been the policy of the Colonial Office to encourage Crown Colonies to consolidate their Ordinances: that is, to repeal all existing Ordinances, and to re-enact their contents in an orderly and scientific manner, In this way most of the Crown Colonies can reduce the bulk of what at home we should call their Stutute Law to the compass of one or two not very formidable volumes. I need not dwell on the benefits derived from such an undertaking, partly because they offer an example which we can never hope to follow at home, partly because they have so often been pointed out before. But I will ask my reader to remember that, on the one hand, the benefits to be derived from codification generally are greater in a Crown Colony than they are at home, while, on the other, the corresponding dangers are much less on account of the ease with which a Colonial legislature can be used for business purposes, But however this may be, it is plain that Colonial consolidation. will be more satisfactorily performed if suitable models are provided--cannot in fact be satisfactorily performed unless models are provided—for codes relating to those branches of the law which are of general application. Such models are in fact found in various Colonial Ordinances, and, I believe in some of the Indian, and even in some English Acts; and as such a model the code has been drafted. Its immediate purpose is, therefore, to afford assistance to a Colonial draftsman, probably the Attorney-General or other legal official of the Colony, and I have tried to provide for his wants throughout, The draft will, however, I venture to hope, serve rather a wider purpose, in facilitating the administration of the criminal law in all the Crown Colonies where it is followed. The ordinary course of official promotion leads to a constant interchange of legal and other officials between the various Crown Colonies, and the difficulties inevitably arising from this system will be to some extent diminished if the Ordinances of one Colony are framed on the same model as those of the others. Theo. retically, too, I suppose that if various Colonies use what is practically one ele, the experience of its defects in one ought to be available in another, but I have not enough experience in the matter to form any opinion as to how far such a counsel of perfection is practicable."

As the draft is framed for use in very various circum. stances, it must be plainly understood that it is a model only: that is, that the Colonial draftsman is expected to alter it

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