i'm in JAAland so someone better informed in your jurisdiction will no doubt help...but our laws were much the same as yours before we changed...and to my recollection...whereas the log book is not a legal document as such ...like a passport... it is a legal record of your flights and you are obliged by law to keep it up to date...( you should log each flight as you do it and not rely on your memory as you may innocently but incorrectly log one or more and it may look like deliberate if for instance you inadvertantly inflate the duration of any flight by mistake..)
there are regulations about keeping it...as for instance recording each and every flight...and keeping the book for a specified number of years after finishing it...
you cannot be prosecuted for a mistake but you can if you deliberatly falsify the recorded times or entries...
hope thts of some help..
the moral is keep it safely...and up to date...with accurate entries...and all will be well..
the dean.
ps ....not sure about your reg. if you lose it but what you say sounds right...just in case someone was to ''lose'' a book that had 800 hours in it and then start a new one with 1250 in it to begin with...!!!!