Auckland Provincial Government Gazette,

and the £60,000 voted by the Legislature in aid of
(4o.)
the revenue of the Province of Auckland—it could
just meet all the necessary expenditure of the
Province, including Education, up to 30th September.
The capitation allowance was estimated by the
Provincial Executive at about £1,000 per month, and
it must be obvious that if so large a proportionate
sum is deducted the Provincial Government must
become unable to meet its expenditure before 30th
September next. The position of affairs is set forth
in the accompanying statement, from which a deficit
of £12,000 is apparent, which is as nearly as
possible the capitation allowance that has been with-
held and which would accrue during the period of
the next eight months. If I were to go to Welling-
ton I could say no more than this: There will be a
deficiency of £12,000 arising from the stoppage of
the capitation allowance; but if the General Government carries out the arrangement it entered into, the
Provincial Government sees its way to meet all its
engagements to 30th September next, without
causing any trouble, and if the General Government does not do this, on that date there will be a
deficiency amounting to the sum named.

Reader Wood.

February 25, 1876.

Memorandum of probable receipts and expenditure for eight months, from 1st February
to 30th September, 1876.

Receipts:

Expenditure:

Reader Wood.

His Honour the Superintendent,
Auckland.

(3c.)

Superintendent’s Office,
Auckland, 25th February, 1876.

Mr. Rees is requested to advise the Superintendent whether, on perusal of the enclosed opinion of the Solicitor General, he is still of opinion that the view taken by the Superintendent in his recent telegram to the Honourable the Premier is correct:

“As to there being no power of stoppage on account of the obvious mistake of eighteen hundred and seventy-one for eighteen hundred and seventy-two in the fifteenth section of the Immigration and Public Works Act, I have submitted the point to the Solicitor-General, who thinks that the error is obviously clerical, and that any Court would construe it according to the obvious intention.”

Auckland,
March 1st, 1876.

Having been requested to advise the Superintendent whether on perusal of the opinion of the Solicitor-General then enclosed, I am still of opinion that the view taken by the Superintendent as to the right of the General Government to stop the capitation money due to the Province of Auckland is correct—

I beg to advise His Honor, that, after mature consideration of the matter, I cannot in the slightest degree alter the opinion formerly given by me, that the General Government cannot under and by virtue of the fifteenth section of “The Immigration and Public Works Act, 1875,” detain from the Province of Auckland the monies due under “The Payments to Provinces Act, 1872.”

It may perhaps be necessary, as the General Government has referred the question of interpretation to the Solicitor-General, to set out somewhat in detail the reasons and arguments on which my opinion is based.

I. (1) It is evident from the wording of the 13th and 15th sections of “The Immigration and Public Works Act, 1875,” that it is intended that all charges for (1) interest (2) costs and (3) charges as distinct from losses on the monthly working account mentioned in section 14 are to be paid as and by section 13 out of (1) land fund and (2) direct taxation levied within the Province.

(2) The monies now stopped by the Government are principally for interest, costs, and charges outside altogether of working expenses, and yet are not from land fund or direct taxation, but from monies paid to the Province under and by virtue of “The Payments to Provinces Act, 1872.”

II. (1) If however these monies were stopped on account of the losses on monthly working account under sections 14 and 15, then they could not be legally detained, for section 15 provides only that these losses are to be deducted out of monies payable to Provinces under the Act of 1871, and the money now stopped is not so payable.

(2) Moreover it may, for the sake of argument, be urged that section 15 actually does contemplate some payment to Provinces under the 11th section of the Act of 1871 which did not cease with the other portions of the Act on the 1st day of July, 1872.

As to the opinion as reported of the Solicitor-General, I must suppose that there has been some mistake either in the statement of the case to him or in his opinion as quoted by the Honorable the Premier, as I cannot find a single authority to support the opinion that, under similar circumstances to these, any Court would construe the words Payments to Provinces Act, 1871, to mean the Payments to Provinces Act, 1872.

W. L. REES.

(5o.)

Auckland, 3rd March, 1876.

To the Hon. the Premier,
Wellington.

In telegram of 23rd ultimo you express opinion that any Court would construe 1871 to mean 1872 in Immigration and Public Works Act of 1875, and would consequently, in conformity with law, deprive this Province of its capitation allowance. The opinion thus maintained is a most serious one for this Province. It may at any moment be made the cause of ruinous embarrassment to us. As it has, however, been put forward authoritatively by yourself and the Solicitor-General, and has been acted upon by your Government without waiting for the