CO885-(10-11) — Page 156

5762.

No. 118.

(NEW ZEALAND.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

MY LORD DUxe,

Temple, June 10, 1862. We are honoured with your Grace's commands signified in Sir Frederic Rogers" letter of the 28th May ultimo, stating that your Grace has had under your consider- ation our joint report dated the 30th April ultimo* respecting the New Provinces Act of New Zealand, and that your Grace is desirous, if possible, of settling the whole of the question at issue by one Act of Parliament, and the view which your Grace takes of the policy to be pursued by the Home Government in this matter is such as to render this possible.

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Sir Frederic Rogers was also pleased to state that, broadly speaking, the legal objection to the New Provinces Act appears to be this, that whereas by various clauses of the Imperial Act of Parliament, some alterable and some unalterable, the Superin- tendent, with the advice of his Council (a body of which he cannot lawfully be made a member), is authorised to make laws for the administration of the Province, the Colonial Act transfers the legislative powers of the Superintendent to the Governor, giving to the former officer the power of sitting in the Council in which he is probably intended to occupy the place of President or Speaker, and that this fundamental difference appears to be the key to the inconsistences between the Imperial and Colonial legislation which are pointed out by Mr. Sewell, and are deemed by us to be fatal to the Colonial Act.

Sir Frederic Rogers was further pleased to state that it appeared to your Grace that the constitution of the Provincial Legislatures may very properly be left to the decision of the General Assembly of New Zealand, subject only to these reservations. First, that these small Legislatures shall be required to adhere to the rule which places the initiation of the money votes in the hands of the Government (15 & 16 Vict. c. 72 and s. 25.). Secondly, that the Provincial laws not being liable to disallowance by Her Majesty's representative in the Colony (15 & 16 Vict. c. 72. ss. 28, 29.), and shall be confined to subjects on which the final decision may safely be entrusted to that repre- sentative (15 & 16 Vict. c. 72. s. 19.), and that it is plain that the provisions of the New Provinces Act in no degree impair, and by enlarging the power of the Governor in one respect materially strengthen, the security thus required by the Home Govern- ment, and that your Grace not only considers that Act unobjectionable in this respect, but would gladly see it extended to the existing Provinces, and that your Grace was therefore of opinion that a Bill might properly be introduced into Parliament, giving effect to the New Provinces Act, and enabling the General Assembly to deal as they please with the administrative and legislative constitutions of the provinces, subject only to such limitations as would secure these objects.

Sir Frederic Rogers was also pleased to state that he was directed by your Grace to submit to us the draft of a Bill which your Grace had caused to be framed with the above object, and to request that we would inform your Grace at our earliest con- venience whether it is effectual for its object, and can properly be introduced into Parliament, and that if this should be our opinion it appeared to your Grace that it might be unnecessary to communicate to the Colonial Government in detail our opinion of the 30th of April, which your Grace was inclined to think might have been in some respects differently worded, if certain facts and their bearing on the question had been more completely stated in the case submitted to us, and that your Grace would propose to communicate to the Colonial Government with the proposed Act of Parliament a statement in the general sense of this letter, and the substance of our answer to the fourth question of the Colonial Attorney General which has an importance reaching beyond the particular questions which will be set at rest by that Act.

In obedience to your Grace's commands we have taken these papers into consider. ation, and have the honour to

Report

That we have considered the Draft Bill referred to in your Grace's letter, and we would suggest that, in order to avoid any possible future misapprehension upon one

0 16278.-620. 25.-2/86.

• No. 113.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

19

C.O.

Reference :-

· 885

10 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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