diminish the size of the districts unreasonably, regard being had to the future of the colony, but it seems right to divide the whole into two districts, uniting those clusters of population which fall most conveniently into the same districts, regard being had to the back country, and to the probable increase of population and settlement. The districts adopted in the Ordinance are I think generally satisfactory to the Province.

I have now to refer to the mode of bringing this Ordinance into operation—to the question of whether your Excellency will think it right to dissolve or not to dissolve the Provincial Council.

The original Bill on which the first four clauses of the present Ordinance are based contemplated a simple addition to the present Council without a dissolution. My own feeling was, and is that such a mode of enlarging the Council would prove unsatisfactory. The enlarged Council would consist of one half elected from a smaller constituency and the other half from a larger, owing to the increase in the number of electors by a new registration. Besides this it seemed to me that if any alteration at all were made in the present arrangements it would be unwise to prolong the existing inconvenient and unfair distribution of the Representation amongst the several constituencies. Again, I had no doubt that the Attorney General had conveyed to your Excellency the substance of a conversation I had with him shortly before I left Auckland to the effect that in accordance with the Resolution of the Provincial Council in February last, I should most likely have to request a dissolution in December next, indeed I think I expressed the same to your Excellency in person, and I conceived therefore it was not unlikely that your Excellency would upon receiving such a Bill for assent see fit to dissolve. I could not but feel that a dissolution upon such a Bill as that embodied in the first two clauses would have proved anything but satisfactory or acceptable to the Province.

In the chance, therefore, amounting after what had occurred to a high probability, of your Excellency determining on a dissolution, a Bill for remodelling the electoral districts, and redistributing the representation was imperatively called for. My own opinion still is that the fairest mode of effecting this change would be by an immediate dissolution.

At the same time I am bound to express to your Excellency my belief that at the present moment a considerable number of persons within the Province would prefer that there should be no dissolution, that the Ordinance should be allowed to operate through the first two clauses, and that the dissolution should be postponed until a later period. Those persons would rather think, that this should occur, than that several questions now unsettled, but which it is agreed on all hands shall be left open for an enlarged Council, should be delayed until after dissolution.

I think I have fairly placed the case before your Excellency in both its bearings, and have afforded all the information which may assist your Excellency’s decision.

If your Excellency see fit to assent to the Ordinance, I beg you will be pleased to sign the parchment copy enclosed and to return it to be deposited in the Record Office of the Province as our Ordinances require. A duplicate parchment copy shall be sent for security by the next opportunity and the printed copies forwarded in due course.

Lastly, I would request that your Excellency would be pleased, if possible, to acquaint me with the result of your decision by the return of the steamer, and at the same time to inform me whether it is your intention to dissolve the Provincial Council. I assume it would be impossible to issue the writs for the new election by return of post, but if your Excellency should assent to the Ordinance, and acquaint me with your resolution as to the dissolution, I shall know how to act in reference to issuing writs under the first clauses.

I would also remind your Excellency that in the event of a dissolution the writs for a new election should not be made returnable within less than one hundred days, which will allow time for the registration under the Ordinance, and I would further request that His Honor, Mr. Justice Stephen may be informed that the Ordinance has been assented to, in order that he may appoint a Revising Officer.

His Honor has been so good as to state that upon receiving such information he will be prepared immediately to make the appointment so that no time need be lost in making up the electoral roll.

I have the honor to be,

Sir,

Your Excellency’s most obedient humble servant,

James Edward Fitzgerald,

Superintendent.