CO885-(13-15) — Page 375

11057.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TILEC.O. 885

14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

MY LORD,

No. 65.

(NEW ZEALAND.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Royal Courts of Justice, June 23, 1894. We were honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Mr. Bramston's letter of the 19th of April last stating that he was directed by your Lordship to invite our consideration of the enclosed Despatch from the Governor of New Zealand on the question of the powers of the Governor's Deputy.

That Mr. Bramston was, at the same time, to transmit copies of the following documents :-

Letters Patont, 21st February 1879, constituting the office of Governor ; Royal Instructions, 26th March 1892;

Commission, 24th February 1892, appointing the Earl of Glasgow to be Governor; Commission, 22nd February 1879, appointing the Chief Justice, or Senior Judge, to administer the Government in the event of the death, incapacity, or absence of the Governor or Lieutenant Governor.

That no Commission appointing a Lieutenant Governor had been issued.

That it would be seen that the Letters Patent, Article II., empowered and commanded the Governor to execute all things that belong to the office of Governor, according to the tenour of the Letters Patent and of his Commission, and according to his Instructions and to such as were, or should be, in force in the Colony.

That the 12th Article provided for the temporary administration of the Government in certain events, and empowered and commanded the Administrator to do and execute, during the Queen's pleasure, all things that belong to the office of Governor according to the tenour of the Letters Patent, and according to Instructions and the laws of the Colony.

That the 13th Article of the Letters Patent empowered the Governor to appoint a Deputy during his temporary absence to execute for, and on behalf of, the Governor all such powers and authorities vested in the Governor by the Letters Patent as should be in and by the instrument of appointment specified and limited, but no others.

16

That by the laws of New Zealand certain statutory duties were vested in, or, imposed on, the Governor; and that by the Interpretation Act of 1888, section 4, the word Governor" in Acts of the Legislature was declared to mean the Governor of the Colony, and to include the Lieutenant Governor, and the person for the time being lawfully administering the Government of the Colony.

That the Chief Justice expressed a doubt whether the person appointed by the Governor to be his Deputy was, within the meaning of the Interpretation Act, the person for the time being lawfully administering the Government of the Colony, and stated his opinion that if the Deputy was not the person administering, &c., then the various powers which the Legislature had vested in the Governor could not be exercised by any person within New Zealand.

That the Solicitor General of the Colony thought that it seemed tolerably clear that the Deputy was not a person lawfully administering the Government, but he was inclined to think that the acts of the Deputy were the acts of the Governor himself (or, as it would seem, of the person administering the Government if the Deputy had been appointed by the Administrator), and that in that case the question would not be of importance.

That the first instance of appointing a Deputy occurred in 1859, when the Governor of New Zealand received a Supplementary Commission under the Great Seal for the express purpose, and the practice had continued without question to the present time. That the administrative convenience of enabling the Governor to appoint a Deputy to discharge his duties during temporary absence was followed in other Colonies, the power to appoint being conferred, as in the Letters so great that it had been Patent, under the Great Seal and by the instrument under which the Governor (and Administrator) exercised his own powers. That in Canada Her Majesty was, by section 14 of the British North America Act. 1867, empowered to authorise the Governor to appoint Deputies, but the Act did not proscribe the nature of the instrument by which the authority was to be conveyed.

• 79871.-24. 25.-7/94.

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