Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1908-06-19
WORK OF LAW
REVISION COMMISSION
Secretary Benjamin N. Read Makes
Ante. esting Report to Governor
George Curry.

George Curry.
| The following interesting report OF
the work and action of the Law Re
vision Commission of the territory h.
just been rendered by Hon. Benjami.
M. Read, secretary Of the commission
to Governor George Curry:
Law Revision Chambers,
Santa Fe, N. NJ, June II, 1908.
"Hon. George Curry, Governor of the
Territory Of New Mexico:
"Dear Sir:
Complying with your official re-
quest, contained in your favor Of the
Sth inst, calling for "a brief statement
relative to the operations of the Law
Revision Commission / beg to submit
the following report:
THE revision of our laws had been
for great number Of years an urgent
Indispensable necessity, and the last
Legislature by the enactment Of chap
ter 95, approve March 81, 1907, au.
tthcrlAad Il. This Jaw committed the re.
vision 10 a commission of five mem
bers, naming them, to wit, the attOr
ney general of theterritory, Charles
A. Spiess, Elmer E. Studley, Ralph f.
Twitchell and myself.
"This commission was organized in
the city Of Santa Fe on March % 1907,
and selected Hon. Charles A. Spiess
and the undersigned as chairman and
secretary, respectively and on the
end of April, following, the work of
compiling the laws was commenced.
AFTER the compilation had been
| finished and before the work OF revis-
ing had been commenced the commits
sioner all but the attorney general,
named in the law resigned and a new
commission was appointed by your ex.
cellency, to-wit, W. B. Childers, H. NJ.
|Dougherty, Louis c. Ilfeld and myself.
The new commission met and organ
lied in the city of Santa Fe, on No
vember IS, 1907 elected Mr.. Childers
as chairman and reelected myself as
secretary; at this meeting the compiled
work was divided for the purposes of
revision, among the five members of
the commission, the revision work was
then commenced, Is now finished and
about to be turned over to Mr.. J. E.
Cobbey, from Nebraska, the expert Sc
|lected by the commission to do the
arranging, annotating and indexing Of
the work as required by section S, of
said chapter IS, supra.
Chairman W. B. Childers died
while the work Of revision was being
done and Mr.. julius Staab was named
to succeed him as member of the CON-
mission, and the present attorney gen.
eral of the territory, Hon. ]. M. Her
vey, was elected chairman OF the CON-
mission.
"The commission has passed upon
and revised 4196 sections Of the Com.
piled laws OF 1897. Elghty-one chapters
of the Session laws Of 1899, one hun.
dred and twenty-five chapters Of the
Session laws of 1908, one hundred and
thirty-four chapters of the Session
laws of 1905, and one hundred and sew
len chapters Of the last session (1907)
LOT the legislature.
"The sum of $4,000 0was appropriate
ed to defray the expenses of the re-
vision. OF this amount $4,000 was set
aside by the law as compensation for
the commissioners and $4,000 for the
services OF the clerical force, trans.
lator, expert and other necessary ex.
lpenses.
Section g., OF said chapter IS, supra,
provides that the revision commission
shall make report Of the work in
! five typewriter copies to the 30th
Legislative Assembly and the com
mission will be ready to comply with
this requirement and to complete the
revision within the amount so set
aside for the work, to-wit, $4,000.
Respectfully submitted,
"BENJAMIN M. READ,
Secretary OF Law Revision Com.
mission"