400 Auckland Provincial Government Gazette.

Superintendent’s Office,
Auckland, 21st September, 1876.

THE following Bill, introduced into the General Assembly of New Zealand, is published, by direction of His Honour the Superintendent, for general information.

VINCENT E. RICE,
For the Provincial Secretary.

Sir G. Grey.

Provincial Abolition Permissive.

ANALYSIS.

Title.
Preamble.

1. Short Title.

2. Sections 25, 26, 27, 28, of Abolition Act repealed.

3. Superintendent may dissolve Council.

4. Introduction of Abolition of Provinces Act permissive.

5. Restriction of powers of legislation of General Assembly.

6. Provincial annual payments of interest on colonial debt.

A BILL INTITULED

An Act to make Provincial Abolition permissive in each Province.

WHEREAS an Act of the Imperial Parliament passed in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Her Most Gracious Majesty, chapter 72, did create and establish within the Colony of New Zealand a General Assembly and Provincial Legislatures, the latter consisting of a Superintendent and Provincial Council: And whereas the Queen, Lords, and Commons of Great Britain did by the said Act confer upon the Provincial Legislatures power to make and ordain all such laws and ordinances as might be required for the peace, order, and good government of each Province, with the exception of laws on a few specified subjects of general and Imperial interest: And whereas Her Majesty did further waive her prerogative, and grant to her subjects in New Zealand the great and unusual privilege that all laws passed by the Provincial Legislatures should take effect and remain in operation without Her Majesty’s assent to the same being sought for or obtained, so that their legislation on all subjects not of general or Imperial interest was freed from all exterior interference, and rested solely with the inhabitants of New Zealand: And whereas from time immemorial it has been the usage of the Empire that when Legislatures are created and established, and have rights and powers of legislation conferred upon them, such rights and powers, except in case of actual and open rebellion, are never taken away or destroyed, except under and with the authority of Acts passed by such Legislatures: And Whereas the several provinces of New Zealand are guiltless of offence, and it is necessary and desirable that this ancient and salutary bulwark of freedom and justice should be respected and reverently preserved:

BE IT THEREFORE ENACTED by the General Assembly of New Zealand in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1. The Short Title of this Act shall be “The Provincial Abolition Permissive Act, 1876.”

2. Sections twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, and twenty-eight of “The Abolition of Provinces Act, 1875,” are hereby repealed.

3. It shall be lawful for the Superintendent, by Proclamation or otherwise, to dissolve the Provincial Council whenever he shall deem it expedient so to do.

4. “The Abolition of Provinces Act, 1875,” shall come into operation in each province from and after a day to be named in any Act or Ordinance for that purpose passed by the Provincial Council of such province.

5. No law or ordinance of the General Assembly of New Zealand made after the passing of this Act shall have any force or effect in any province of New Zealand, except such laws or ordinances as relate to any of the purposes named in the nineteenth section of the New Zealand Constitution Act, fifteenth and sixteenth Victoria, chapter seventy-two.

6. The amount to be annually contributed by each Province as its share of the interest payable on the Colonial debt shall be fixed by Act of the General Assembly: Provided always that until such Act is passed, the interest on the existing Colonial debt, which amounts to eight hundred and fifteen thousand pounds, shall be charged as follows—that is to say, a sum not exceeding one hundred and ninety thousand pounds shall be charged against the North Island, and the balance against the South Island, each province or provincial district contributing in proportion to its revenue, ordinary and territorial.

Printed under the authority of the Provincial Government of the Province of Auckland by HENRY BRETT, Printer for the time being to the Provincial Government, at his General Steam Printing Establishment, Wyndham-street, Auckland.