20 Law Reform Prior to 1937 76.    The Parliament of New Zealand first met in 1854, although it was not until 1856 that it began examining and passing legislation.¹ From 1854 to 1937 there were no formal structures established to support law reform.  Consequently, legislative change  was  haphazard  and  sporadic.    Despite this unevenness, Parliament was still willing to make fundamental reforms in many areas of the law, particularly during the foundation period of the country and from 1875-1910.   77.    For example, it was during this active period that the land transfer system was introduced.² Considerable advances were also made in family law in the areas of adoption,  legitimation  by  subsequent  marriage  and  family  protection.    The criminal  law  was  codified,  and  a  new  code  of  civil  procedure  was  introduced.   Other areas of the law tended to remain static. 78.    Much of the legislation passed during this time derived either from an English statute  or  another  Australasian  colony.³  Many  statutes  were  copied  verbatim from Britain, particularly in the area of commercial law.⁴ It was not unknown for New Zealand to pioneer reforms before both Britain and Australia, but in many cases New Zealand copied reforms first established in Australia. The States of New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria were particularly influential.⁵ 79.    After  1910  the  New  Zealand  Parliament  entered  a  more  conservative  period where law reform activity consisted mostly of Parliament tweaking English law rather  than  drafting  new  legislation,  or  departing  from  English  precedents.⁶ Legislative  reform  continued  but  the  pace  and  originality  decreased  leading  to dissatisfaction over the failure of the law to keep up with changes in society.⁷                                                  1 P Spiller, J Finn, R Boast A New Zealand Legal History (Brookers Limited, Wellington, 1995) 109. 2 Above n1, 112. 3   Above n1, 109-111. 4 J  R  Hanan  The  Law  in  a  Changing  Society:  A  Policy  and  Programme  for  Law  Reform (Wellington 1965), 5; above n1, 94, 97-98,  102, 105-107, 109-111; B J Cameron “The Law Reform Committees 1966-86” (1988) 13 NZULR 123, 124. 5 Above n1, 88, 94, 109, 114, 116. 6   Above n1, 112. 7 J R Hanan, above n4.