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TiMEHRI. 



there are revised colleftions of the laws, of recent date 

 and competent editorship. The last colleftion of the 

 Bahamas laws is made on the principle of a classification 

 of Acts under various headings according to their subje6t 

 matter, but each Act preserves its own date and its 

 identity generally. The British Honduras colle6lion is 

 more nearly assimilated in its method and plan to the 

 Revised Statutes of the United States than any other of 

 those to which reference has been made, except perhaps 

 that of Canada. It contains the statute laws of the 

 Colony welded together in one whole, comprising 35 

 Parts and 119 Chapters, arranged according to their 

 subje6l matter. The compilation forms a single large 

 o£tavo volume of 972 pages. Its preparation was, I 

 believe, begun by Mr. Justice SHERIFF, who was then 

 Chief Justice of the Colony, and was completed by Mr. 

 W. M. Goodman, who succeeded Mr. Sheriff in the 

 office of Chief Justice. 



Condition of the local Statute Book, 

 Having ascertained the circumstances of this matter of 

 statute law revision in those countries and places whose 

 example might be of interest and value for us, let us 

 now proceed to inquire into the condition of our own 

 statute book, and to ask what efforts have been made by 

 the Legislature and Government for its improvement in 

 the way of publishing revised and colle6ted editions. 

 The answer on both these heads is of an unsatisfaftory 

 kind. It must be frankly admitted that our statute laws 

 are in a chaotic condition and that we are not possessed 

 of a single revised and colle6led edition of them, published 

 by authority. It may, indeed, be affirmed that, in the 

 stri6l sense of the words, the Colony has no statute book 



