The following is a list of the Consolidated Laws reported by the board, giving the chapter number of each law and the date when it took effect.

*The break in the chapter numbers from seven to eleven was left for the Code of Civil Procedure and Code of Criminal Procedure when revised.

A revision of the highway laws of the state was made by a committee of the legislature consisting of the Honorable Jotham P. Allds as chairman, George H. Cobb, S. Percy Hooker, James J. Frawley, Edwin A. Merritt, Jr., James K. Apgar, Leonidas D. West, Edson W. Hamn and John H. Mallon, and in accordance with the recommendations of that committee a new Highway Law was enacted in nineteen hundred and eight (L. 1908, ch. 330). This statute was re-enacted as one of the Consolidated Laws (L. 1909, ch. 30).

A revision of the forest, fish and game laws was made by Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner James S. Whipple, and a new Forest, Fish and Game Law was adopted by the legislature of 1908 and substituted in place of the Forest, Fish and Game Law reported by the board. The new Forest, Fish and Game Law being chapter one hundred and thirty of the Laws of nineteen hundred and eight was re-enacted as one of the Consolidated Laws (L. 1909, ch. 24).

In pursuance of chapter two hundred and sixty-one of the laws of nineteen hundred and seven a commission was appointed to investigate the national guard and naval militia. The commission consisted of William Cary Sanger, chairman; Major-General William A. Kobbe, Francis G. Landon, appointed by the governor, Senators Martin Saxe, Albert T. Fancher and Charles H. Fuller, and Assemblymen J. Mayhew Wainwright, George L. Baldwin and Thomas H. Todd. The commission reported a bill to the legislature which was enacted as chapter two hundred and thirtyone of the laws of nineteen hundred and eight, and was substituted by the board for the draft of the Military Law prepared by it and became chapter forty-one of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine.

The act creating the Board of Statutory Consolidation gave it authority to treat the civil and criminal practice. While the board was required to consolidate the substantive statutes without any change in the law, so far as the practice was concerned, it was permitted to make such amendments as it might deem necessary to revise the practice.

The board found it impracticable within the time allowed it to revise the practice as well as consolidate the general substantive statutes, and has, therefore, left the revision of the practice for subsequent treatment.

An extensive preliminary study, however, was made of the Code of Civil Procedure, and considerable substantive matter was removed from the code, but this removal does not change the section numbering of the code, or involve any rearrangement of it or any change in the practice.

The substantive provisions removed from the code of civil procedure by the board have been distributed in various consolidated laws, but chiefly arranged in a law known as the judiciary law, embracing matters relating to courts and officers thereof.

The board reported amendatory acts incorporating into the codes such practice matter as it found in the session laws and making such changes in code sections containing references as were found necessary by reason of the removal of certain provisions from the Code of Civil Procedure.

The act amending the Code of Civil Procedure generally is chapter sixty-five of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine and that amending the Code of Criminal Procedure generally is chapter sixty-six of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine, both going into effect February seventeenth, nineteen hundred and nine.

In preparing its consolidation of the general substantive statutes the board found it necessary to make a list of the statutes which it considered general in their operation and the statutes which in terms affected those statutes. This material was arranged and published in a volume by itself and is called by the board the "Historical Record of General Statutes." It embraces a period from February first, seventeen hundred and seventyeight, to January first, nineteen hundred and nine, and covers not only the substantive statutes, but the practice acts as well. It also embraces all previous revisions like the Revised Acts, Revised Laws, Revised Statutes and General Laws. It was arranged in convenient tabulated form showing in one column express repeals and in another column all amendatory or otherwise affecting

statutes.

Attached to each of the consolidated laws in the report of the board is an exhaustive schedule of repeals embracing statutes consolidated in the text and obsolete statutes not consolidated.

in the text and statutes theretofore repealed and going back to the earliest legislation in the state. In order to avoid error and confusion the board adopted the rule of repealing in each consolidated law only such matters as were pertinent to the law. A similar rule, though not perhaps so strictly adhered to, was followed in the framing of the general laws. This treatment distributed statutes frequently in two or more laws and made it difficult to learn where parts of statutes had been disposed of. To obviate this difficulty the board prepared a consolidation of its schedules, arranging the material chronologically so that it could be learned at a glance what disposition had been made of a statute or any part of it where portions of it had been repealed in different consolidated laws. This table contains another feature to which attention should be called, namely, that in its consolidation of provisions not theretofore contained in the "General Laws" the board indicated in this table where the provisions had been consolidated in the text, as well as where they had been repealed.

The board invited the consideration of its report by various bar associations of the state, and wherever these associations took action it was in favor of the early adoption of the laws. Among the associations which thus acted was the State Bar Association upon the report of a committee of fifteen of the association, consisting of Denis O'Brien, chairman; Alton B. Parker, David B. Hill, J. Newton Fiero, Richard L. Hand, Daniel J. Kenefick, Austen G. Fox, Louis Marshall, James T. Rogers, Charles A. Collin, Lucian L. Shedden, Daniel S. Remsen, Edward H. Fallows, Gherardi Davis, and Frank B. Gilbert; the Bar Association of the City of New York, which, acting upon the report of a special committee, of which Joseph Du Vivier was chairman, appointed Francis M. Burdick, Joseph Du Vivier, Paul Fuller, Lawrence Godkin, Louis Marshall, Mortimer C. Addoms, Henry W. Taft, William A. Keener, Edward W. Hatch and Peter B. Olney a committee to urge the enactment of the Consolidated Laws reported by the board; the New York County Lawyers' Association, John F. Dillon, president; the Queens County Bar Association, the Erie County Bar Association, the Rochester Bar Association, acting upon the report of a special committee, consisting of Erwin Taylor, Walter S. Hubbell and William W. Webb; the Albany County Bar Association, the Greene County Bar Association, the Johnstown Bar Association, the Onondaga County Bar Association, acting upon a report of a special committee, consisting of William P. Goodelle, W. R. Chamberlin, Walter W. Magee, Lawrence T. Jones and Joseph Bondy; the Jefferson County Bar Association, the Westchester County Bar Association, and the Schenectady County Bar Association.

The Consolidated Laws prepared by the board were referred to

a joint committee of the legislature, consisting of Senators George A. Davis, chairman; William W. Armstrong, Harvey D. Hinman, John C. R. Taylor, and Assemblymen Jesse S. Phillips, George A. Green, Joseph M. Fowler, Miles R. Frisbie and David C. Robinson. This committee recommended the adoption of the Consolidated Laws by the legislature, the preparation of an official edition and of an index of the Consolidated Laws.

The Consolidated Laws in the form required by the legislature were upon the desks of the members at the opening of the session of nineteen hundred and nine and were referred to the judiciary committee in each house. The members of this committee in the senate were, Senators Davis, Allds, Cobb, Hinman, Grattan, McCarren, Meade, Wainwright, Schlosser, Raines, Wagner, Schultz and Grady, and in the assembly Assemblymen Jesse S. Phillips, Hamn, Fowler, Weimert, Green, Walters, Ward, Howard, Cyrus W. Phillips, Sullivan, Sheridan, Stern and Klein. All of the bills were promptly reported from the judiciary committee of the assembly and all were later reported from the senate judiciary committee and all were passed by both houses with such amendments as resulted from the examination made by the committee or suggested by the board or by the governor's counsel, Honorable Carlos C. Alden. With the exception of the Railroad Law and the Public Service Commissions Law, the Consolidated Laws were signed by Governor Charles E. Hughes, and became statutes of the state.

The General Construction Law contains provisions defining the effect of the Consolidated Laws (Arts. 4, 5 and 6), but the legislature prepared and passed in addition thereto the following act for the construction of the Consolidated Laws, being chapter five hundred and ninety-six of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine.

STATUTE PRESCRIBING RULES FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CONSOLIDATED LAWS.

AN ACT to prescribe the rules for the construction of the consolidated laws and code amendments reported to the legislature under and in pursuance to the provisions of chapter six hundred and sixty-four of the laws of nineteen hundred and four, and also for the construction of chapter two hundred and forty of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine.

Became a law May 29, 1909, with the approval of the Governor. Passed. Three-fifths being present.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. In construing the consolidated laws and the amendments to the code of civil procedure and the code of criminal pro