5 Ombudsman in the common law world in the early 1960’s²¹ and major reforming Acts in the area of contract law in the 70’s and 80’s²². Law reform tended all to be very ad hoc in New Zealand until 1937 when a part-time Law   Reform   Committee   was   inaugurated,   chaired   by   the   Attorney-General   and including departmental and academic members²³. The judiciary declined to participate.    A major leap occurred in the early 1960’s with the creation of a numbe r of part-time law reform  committees  made  up  of  lawyers,  academics  and  civil  servants²⁴.  They  had  an extraordinary record of producing reports that actually became law, a problem to which I return at a later stage.    It was the crusading zeal of Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Palmer, our Attorney-General in the mid 1980’s, which led to the New Zealand Law Commission Act 1985 and the creation of a permanent body with statutory independence.   It continues to operate 20 years later in that form. Who should be Commissioners? The membership of the New Zealand Commission is not unlike those in other common law countries.  The Act provides: The Law Commission shall consist of no fewer than 3, and no more than 6 members….The Governor-General   must,   on   the   recommendation   of   the   responsible   Minister,   appoint   1 member of the Commission, who must be a Judge or retired Judge of the Court of Appeal or                                                  21   Sir Guy Powles was appointed as the first New Zealand Ombudsman on 7 September 1962 22   Illegal   Contracts   Act   1970,   Contractual   Mistakes   Act   1977,   Contractual   Remedies   Act   1979, Contracts  (Privity)  Act  1982  (from  Peter  Spiller,  Jeremy  Finn  and  Richard  Boast  A  New  Zealand Legal History (2 ed, Brookers, Wellington, 2001)) 23   In 1937 the Hon HGR Mason, then Attorney -General, established the Law Revision Committee (from David B Collins “Law Reform : A New Procedure for New Zealand” [1976] NZLJ 441, 442   24   The  Law  Revision  Commission  was  established  in  1965,  followed  by  four  standing  committees  in 1966  each  responsible  for  one  specific  area  of  law  (Contracts  and  Commercial;  Property  Law  and Equity;  Torts  and  General  Law  Reform;  Public  and  Administrative  Law)   –  (from  David  B  Collins “Law Reform : A New Procedure for New Zealand” [1976] NZLJ 441, 443) Administrative Law)    – (from David B Collins “Law Reform : A New Procedure for New Zealand” [1976] NZLJ 441, 443)