[ENCLOSURE I.]

Superintendent's Office,
Auckland, February 20th, 1857.

MESSAGE No. 51.

The Superintendent learns with deep regret that, at a moment when questions of high import to the public interests demand the immediate consideration of the Representatives of the Province, the action of the Provincial Council is arrested upon a point of order, and that there is no immediate probability that the Council will be permitted to relieve itself from its present embarrassment.

Under these circumstances the Superintendent proposes to assume the responsibility of carrying on the business of the Province, and of actively prosecuting the several public works, pending the passing of the Appropriation Act for the year, in order that the present favourable season may not be lost, and that the distress which would inevitably be produced by throwing a large number of workmen out of employment may be averted.

In the hope that upon mature reflection a better understanding amongst the members of the Council may be speedily arrived at, the Superintendent has resolved to prorogue the Provincial Council, and has accordingly issued the Proclamation which is transmitted herewith.

J. WILLIAMSON,
Superintendent.

[ENCLOSURE II.]

PROCLAMATION.

By JOHN WILLIAMSON, Esquire, Superintendent of the Province of Auckland, in the Colony of New Zealand.

WHEREAS by an Act of the Imperial Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, passed in the session thereof holden in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of the Reign of Her present Majesty Queen Victoria, intituled “An Act to grant a Representative Constitution to the Colony of New Zealand,” it was amongst other things enacted that for each of the Provinces established in the said Colony by the said Act there should be a Superintendent and a Provincial Council, to be elected and constituted under and subject to the provisions in that behalf therein contained, and that it should be lawful for the Superintendent of any of the said Provinces to prorogue the Provincial Council thereof, from time to time, whenever he should deem expedient so to do.

Now therefore, I, the Superintendent of the Province of Auckland, (one of the Provinces aforesaid,) do proclaim and declare that I do hereby, in pursuance of the power vested in me in that behalf by the said Act, prorogue the Provincial Council of the said Province of Auckland, and that the said Provincial Council is prorogued accordingly.

Given under my hand, and issued under the public seal of the said Province, at Auckland, in the Province aforesaid, this twentieth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.

J. WILLIAMSON,
Superintendent.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, June 25th, 1857.

Sir,—I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Honor’s letter, No. 85, dated the 22nd instant, in which you request, for the reasons therein stated, that His Excellency the Governor may be advised to dissolve the Auckland Provincial Council.

In reply, I have to inform your Honor, that His Excellency the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, has been pleased to determine to dissolve the Auckland Provincial Council at the earliest possible period which will admit of the recent claimants, whose names may be placed on the Electoral Roll now in course of formation, taking part in the elections consequent upon that dissolution.

I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your very obedient servant,

E. W. STAFFORD.

His Honor
the Superintendent,
Auckland.

Printed by W. C. WILSON, for the Provincial Government.