126 Auckland Provincial Government Gazette.

Superintendent’s Office,
Auckland, 28th March, 1876.

SIR,—

I have the honour to solicit your attention to the 27th Section of "An Act to Provide for the Abolition of the Provinces," No. 21, 39 Victoriæ.

Under this section the Governor in Council is required, upon certain expenditure from the revenues of a Province being recommended by the Superintendent of a Province, to consent to, or decline to consent to, such expenditure for any public service, so that the Superintendent can, in fact, only undertake such expenditure on the recommendation or resolution of the Governor in Council.

At present some recommendations I have made for expenditure from Provincial funds on necessary public works, remain unnoticed or unreplied to.

The invariable rule throughout the Empire is, that, whenever a Governor in Council sit, with the powers of a legislative body, for the purpose of consenting to, or refusing to consent to, the expenditure of public funds, their deliberations are open to the public, who have thus an opportunity of knowing the grounds on which the expenditure of funds raised by taxation are authorised, or the contrary, and have also an opportunity of satisfying themselves of the assiduity and fairness with which the public business, wants, and expenditure are attended to or sanctioned.

I therefore earnestly request that you will be so good as to advise His Excellency the Governor to have all such meetings of the Council as I have alluded to, open to the public, and to direct that due public notice should be given of the time and place of such meetings.

I have, etc.,
G. Grey,

The Honourable Dr. Pollen,
Colonial Secretary, Auckland.

General Government Offices,
Auckland, 29th March, 1876.

SIR,—

I have received your Honor’s letter of date March 28th inst., in which you solicit my attention to the 27th Section of "An Act to provide for the Abolition of the Provinces," No. 21, 39 Victoriæ.

It is unnecessary to discuss with your Honor the question whether or not it is the invariable practice of the Empire for the Executive Council of a Colony under any circumstances to have its meetings open to the public.

It will be sufficient to say that your Honor has curiously misapprehended the purport and meaning of the section in question.

If your Honor will be good enough to refer to the Provincial Appropriation Extension Act, 1875, you will there find that the power of sanctioning expenditure by Provincial Governments in certain cases, upon the recommendation of a Superintendent, is confined to the Governor, not to the Governor in Council.

You have omitted, however, to notice an important point, which is the fact that recommendations for necessary public expenditure made to you in my letters of 7th February, 29th February, and 22nd March, still remain unnoticed, or unreplied to.

I trust you will pardon me for saying that I think the Act to provide for the Abolition of the Provinces, which purports to prevent me from convening the Provincial Council, indicates or provides the means by which those bodies are to be temporarily replaced, and that the term Governor in the Provincial Appropriations Extension Act should constitutionally be interpreted Governor-in-Council.

The Governor I hold to be bound by his duty to the Crown and to the Royal Instructions to understand the word Governor in the sense which I state. The question is one which concerns the disposal of the revenues of upwards of 73,000 people, raised from them by taxation, and such a matter cannot be considered as being too unimportant to require the advice of the Executive Council, whilst in the case of even so urgent a matter, if time does not admit of the Governor consulting his Executive Council, it would still be his duty, with the least practicable delay, to acquaint his Council with the nature of the measures he had adopted, and his reasons for adopting them.

If, however, you are determined to understand the Provincial Appropriations Extension Act of last Session in the sense that the Governor and Superintendent alone are to agree upon the expenditure of the Provincial revenues, and that the money so expended should be deemed to have been appropriated by the Legislature of the Province, whilst the Executive Council will not aid in the matter, I beg to be permitted to offer the following remarks for your consideration:—

The Province of Auckland possesses a Provincial Council elected by the people. That Council ought by law, in my belief, to continue to appropriate the revenues of Auckland. The proceedings of that Council are open to the public, who would thus know the reasons which led to the expenditure of each item of their revenue, or why any expenditure recommended was refused.

Your Government have professed to prevent me from convening the Provincial Council for the purpose of constitutionally providing for the expenditure of their revenues, and I have been advised that I may be personally liable to pains and penalties if I do so, although I think that this is doubtful.

You now tell me that these revenues, contributed by the taxation of upwards of 73,000 people, are to be expended at the discretion of two persons—the Governor and myself—and by our mutual agreement, secretly, in breach (I may say) of every law and traditional custom of the Empire, and of rights which ought to be most dearly cherished by the people of this Province.

I have never consented to undertake such duties, nor can any law compel me to perform them against my will. The Governor may, by assenting to the Act you have named, be said by you to have by implication accepted these duties, but I unhesitatingly state my conviction that His Excellency never would have so assented, had he not believed that he would have had the advice and assistance of his Executive Council in performing those duties; and I regard the attempt now made to throw the whole responsibility of them upon the Governor and myself as an unconstitutional and improper proceeding.

If, however, you are determined to persevere in this course, then I request that you will be so good as to advise the Governor to arrange meetings with me for the purpose of agreeing on the necessary expenditure, to which meetings the public and the representatives of the Press may be admitted, under such restrictions as His Excellency may think necessary.

I have, etc.,
G. Grey,

The Honourable Dr. Pollen,
Colonial Secretary, Auckland.

Superintendent’s Office,
Auckland, 30th March, 1876.

SIR,—

I have the honour to thank you for having so speedily replied to my letter of the 28th instant.

To meet your Honor’s views, and to promote the interests of that Gold Field," I have not received any proposal from your Honor, nor have I made any to you which required your approval.

I have, etc.,
Daniel Pollen.

His Honor the Superintendent,
Auckland.