9692.
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'│ ༴། ༅། །
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
باسينيا
C.O.885
Reference :-
13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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MY LORD,
No. 119.*
(New Guinea.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Royal Courts of Justice, May 15, 1888. We were honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Sir Robert Herbert's letter of the 17th ultimo, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to invite our attention to the British Settlements Act, 1887, and in connection with that Act to request us to take into our consideration the accompanying documents.
(i.) An Act of the Queensland Legislature, of which the short title was "The British New Guinea (Queensland) Act of 1887."
(ii.) Draft of Letters Patent erecting British New Guinea into a separate possession
and providing for the government thereof.
(iii.) Draft of the British New Guinea Order in Council of 1888.
(iv.) Draft instructions to the Administrator of British New Guines.
(v.) Draft instructions to the Governor of Queensland respecting the administration
of the government of British New Guinea.
(vi.) Draft Commission to the Administrator of British New Guinea,
(vii.) Confidential Despatch from Sir Anthony Musgrave, Governor of Queensland, dated 20th October 1887, and reply from your Lordship dated 20th December 1887.
That it would be seen that the scheme for governing British New Guinea, which was practically embodied in the second schedule to the Queensland Act, was that on the proclamation of British Sovereignty, an Administrator was to be appointed with administrative powers, to whom, with other persons, Her Majesty would by Letters Patent delegate legislative powers in pursuance of section 3 of the British Settlementa Act, 1887; and that in consideration of the Colony of Queensland (with New South Wales and Victoria) providing £15,000 a year for the expense of adminisitration, the Governor of Queensland was to direct the Administrator as to the exercise of his functions (much as the Secretary of State directed the Governors of Crown Colonies), and that the Governor of Queensland was to consult his Executive Council as to the directions to be given by him to the Administrator.
That the proposed Letters Patent were the most important of the instruments requisite for establishing the government of British New Guinea, and that Sir Robert Herbert was to state that, with the exception of the preamble and clauses 2, 3, 11, 12, 13-16, the Draft followed former precedents. That as regarded clauses 11, 12, 13, your Lordship considered that they would find a more appropriate place in the Draft Order in Council, which would be a law of the Possession, but that your Lordship had not felt at liberty to insert them in the Draft Order owing to the 13th Article of the proposals in the second schedule to the Queensland Act which specified the Letters Patent; and that Sir Robert Herbert was to explain that in order to avoid all possible grounds of objection or dispute hereafter, it was essential that the terms of those proposals, which were settled at the Colonial Conference last year, should be adhered to as closely as possible.
That it would also be seen from Sir Anthony Musgrave's despatch of 20th October 1887, that that officer doubted the legality of the proposed arrangement for empowering the Governor of Queensland to give directions to the Administrator of British New Guinea.
That it seemed, however, to your Lordship that Sir Anthony Musgrave, mis- apprehended his position under the new state of things, inasmuch as the Governor's intervention would be limited to supervision and direction, while all Acts would be done by the Administrator in his own name and under the authority of his commission. That it appeared doubtful to your Lordship, but upon that you desired our opinion, whether the necessary instructions to the Governor of Queensland might not be properly given by despatch, instead of having recourse to those formal instructions.
A
$2950.-24. 25.-7/88.