COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR JOHN GASPARD LE MARCHANT, Lieutenant-Governor in and over the Province of Nova Scotia, &c. &c. &c. The Report of the undersigned Commissioners appointed by your Excellency to Revise and Consolidate the Laws of the Province: May it please your Excellency: The following Resolution having been passed by the House of Assembly, and concurred in by the Legislative Council at the last session, to wit: "Whereas it has become indispensable that the Statutes of this Province should be further Revised, and an improved Index made therefor, Resolved, That his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor be respectfully requested forthwith to employ a sufficient number of competent persons, not to exceed three, for the purpose of further Revising the Statutes, so as to have the same prepared and submitted to the Government at least one month before the next sittings of the Legislature, and this House will provide for the expense thereof." And your Excellency having done us the honor of intrusting to us this important duty, we have executed the trust, and beg leave to submit to your Excellency the Laws in the form in which we have consolidated them, entitled "the Revised Statutes of Nova Scotia-Second Series." The first series of the Revised Statutes was enacted in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty one, and since that time many material alterations and amendments. have been introduced; some chapters have been repealed, and some acts have passed of an independent character. In revising and consolidating the Laws up to the end of the session of 1857, we have endeavored to make as few alterations in the number and arrangement of the chapters and titles as possible; and we have carefully abstained from making any alteration in the laws themselves, but have compiled them with all alterations and amendments incorporated in the several chapters. It is essential that a copious and correct Index should be prepared, and we have made arrangements to effect this object while the Statutes are in the course of publication. The marginal notes of the sections were, in the first series, collected at the head of each chapter, and this, in the absence of a perfect index, was desirable; but as we intend carrying those notes fully into the index of the new series, we have not placed them at the head of the chapters, which, in our estimation, would be an unnecessary waste of space, and would tend inconveniently to expand the work. From the amount of matter necessarily added to the first series, it may be advisable to divide the new series, with its copious index, into two volumes of about the same size as the volume containing the first series; but we would recommend that if possible, the work shall be published in one volume. An act to regulate the publication of the Revised Statutes was passed on the 7th April, 1851, to which we refer your Excellency, and it appears to us that it will be advisable to make a similar law in respect to the publication of the new or second series. The foregoing Report refers more particularly to the revision and consolidation of the general statutes, we have also prepared a new and amended edition of the private and local acts, with an index, which we also beg leave to submit to your Excellency. All of which is respectfully submitted. Halifax, December 31st, 1857. MARTIN I. WILKINS, W. A. HENRY, JAS. R. SMITH. DIE AN ACT FOR THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE LAWS. (Passed the 7th day of May. A. D. 1858.) Be it enacted, by the Governor, Council and Assembly, as follows: 1. The Governor in Council shall cause the Statutes consolidated under a resolution passed in the last session, to be published with a copious Index, as soon as conveniently can. be; and when the same are so published the Governor may, by Proclamation, declare the same to be in force, and the same thereupon and thereafter shall be in force. 2. All Statutes in force on the first day of this present session, shall thereupon and thereafter be repealed, except such act or parts of acts as have not been substantially incorporated in the said consolidated Statutes, or as shall not have been repealed or have expired. 3. The Acts of the present session shall be printed in the same volume as an Appendix, with proper references, or be incorporated with the consolidated Acts, and shall be included in the Index. 4. All rights accruing or accrued under any of the statutes so repealed, are reserved; and all penalties incurred thereunder shall be enforced, as if such Statutes had not been repealed. |