234 



TiMEHRI. 



paper being not infrequently used. In 1877 a convenient 

 quarto form was adopted, and has remained in use to the 

 present time. 



This, then, is the state of things with regard to the 

 possession of authorized copies of the local laws 

 in the principal public office of the Colony. Nor 

 is the case any better, but rather worse, in some 

 other important departments. The Attorney General's 

 Chambers do not appear to have had an official 

 copy of the laws, as published by the Government 

 Printer, until within the present year, when the Governor 

 considerately made arrangements for purchasing a set of 

 them, at a very considerable cost. This set commences 

 in 1844 and extends virtually to the present time,, but 

 with a hiatus, the volume for 1863 being missing. The 

 appearance of one of the more important Ordinances in 

 the earlier of these volumes, with all the repeals and 

 amendments of later legislation noted on it, is as of a 

 piece of Chinese literature. 



In the Office of the Registrar there is a colleftion of 

 these original laws, but with the following gaps occurring 

 in it,— 1842-43-47-48, and 1855-56-57-58. In 1865 

 the pra6lice of enrolling in this Office a copy of every 

 Ordinance as ena6ted, authenticated by the Govern- 

 or's signature and the Public Seal of the Colony, was 

 commenced and has been continued until the present 

 day. 



The colle6lion of these laws in the Office of the In- 

 spector General of Police commences only with the 

 year 1859, but is complete from that date. 



It is clearly the interest and duty of these four depart- 

 ments, to a degree which perhaps does not attach in the 



