CO129-390 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1912 [5-6] — Page 389

OPY.

sir.

I.

A

Revision Room,

[PEGE 22 JUL 12/

Law Courts,

377

30th. May, 1912.

I have received your letter on the subject of

the mistakes which have been discovered in the two Volumes of the

Revised Edition of the Laws with great surprise, for with defer-

-ence you have arrived at a conclusion without full knowledge of

the facts, and without enquiry whether the complaints which have

been made are well founded.

Realising the very great difficulties which I had to contend with, having only Chinese compositors to deal with,

and also being very conscious that in a work of this magnitude

slips were likely to occur, I requested Sir F. Lugard to let each

Department go through the Ordinances specially appertaining to it in order to check the Revision. y application was refused; I had therefore to do the verification single-handed, and I have been at

work at it for the last six months. I do not believe there are

many other errors, and it is a fortunate, rather than a curious, coincidence that they have been discovered at once. A very large proportion of the "corrigenda" are printer's slips, against which

it is quite impossible to safeguard oneself, as they often occur

between the "passing for press" and the actual printing. It is not humanly possible to tum out perfect work in the Colony, and if

the pages on which slight slips occur were re-printed there would

probably be as many more on the re-printed page. I have had 7

years experience of the printers in the Colony, and anyone who has

had a similar experience will bear me out. So far as serious mis-

-takes are concerned I have of course given orders to have the

pages reprinted.

I now deal with the special cases to which you

have referred me. (i) the mistake in s. 28(1) of No. 11 of 1980 is

of course a serious one; but although the section is one which is dealt with in the General Revision Ordinance, it escaped the

attention