Mass Massachusetts. Commissioners for consolidating arranging the Public statutes REPORT 262 901 OF THE COMMISSIONERS FOR CONSOLIDATING AND ARRANGING THE PUBLISHED BY THE COMMONWEALTH. WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING COMPANY, STATE PRINTERS. 1901. and REPORT. To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massa chusetts. We, the undersigned, commissioners for consolidating and arranging the Public Statutes of the commonwealth, beg leave to submit the following report. Pursuant to a resolve of the legislature of 1896, which authorized the appointment of a commission to consolidate and arrange the Public Statutes, the governor, with the advice and consent of the council, appointed Edmund H. Bennett of Taunton, Charles U. Bell of Lawrence and William M. Butler of New Bedford, who were succeeded by the present members, as stated in our report of February 15, 1900, to the joint committee on the judiciary. The terms of the resolve which defined the duties and powers of the commission are substantially identical with the resolves which authorized previous revisions of the statutes, except that the provision of Res. 1880, c. 46, that the report of the commissioners should be "accepted or rejected by the legislature without amendment," was stricken from the resolve of 1896 upon its passage through the senate. Inasmuch as that provision was construed by the commissioners for consolidating and arranging the General Statutes as precluding them from making "any suggestions designed to modify the existing laws," its omission from the resolve of 1896 has been regarded as an indication of the desire of the legislature that this commission should avail itself of the permission given by the resolve to "suggest any mistakes, omissions, inconsistencies and imperfections which may appear in the laws to be consolidated and arranged, and the manner in which they may be corrected, supplied and amended," as well as to "omit redundant enactments and those which may have ceased to have any effect or influence on existing rights." Such omissions and suggestions are indicated in notes which are appended to the several chapters of the report. |