6

the same, entitled "The Resident Magistrates Court's Extension of Jurisdiction Act, 1856," it is enacted that it shall be lawful for the Governor, upon the request of the Superintendent of any Province, by Proclamation in the "Government Gazette," to bring the said Act into operation in respect to any Resident Magistrate's Court having jurisdiction within such Province from and after a certain day to be named in such Proclamation, and to define the districts within which causes may be heard in such Court under the provisions of the said Act; and it is further enacted, that the Superintendent of the Province within which any such Resident Magistrate's Court shall be situated, shall, by Proclamation in the "Government Gazette" of such Province, fix the days upon which such Court shall sit to hear and determine causes under the provisions of the said Act:—And whereas his Excellency the Governor of New Zealand did, by a Proclamation issued at Auckland on the seventh day of November, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, proclaim and declare that the said recited Act should come into operation, in respect of the Resident Magistrate's Court of Lyttelton, in the said Province of Canterbury, from and after the thirty-first day of December, in the year of our Lord 1856, and that the said Province of Canterbury should be the district within which causes may be heard in such Court under the provisions of the said Act:—Now, therefore, I, James Edward Fitz Gerald, Superintendent of the said Province, do hereby proclaim and declare that the Resident Magistrate's Court of Lyttelton shall sit to hear and determine causes under the provisions of the said Act in the Town Hall at Lyttelton, at the hour of eleven o'clock in the forenoon on the third Tuesday in the months of February, May, August, and November in each year respectively, and thence on each succeeding day, not being a Sunday, Christmas Day, nor Good Friday, until the business of the Court be finished.

Given under my hand, and issued under the Public Seal of the Province of Canterbury, at Christchurch, in the said Province, this twentieth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.

JAMES EDWARD FITZ GERALD,
Superintendent.
By his Honor's command,
JOSEPH BRITTAN,
Provincial Secretary.

God save the Queen.

Provincial Secretary's Office,
Christchurch, 28th Jan., 1857.

HIS Honor the Superintendent has been pleased to direct the publication of the following correspondence, for general information.

JOSEPH BRITTAN,
Provincial Secretary.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, January 6th, 1857.

SIR,—I do myself the honor to address you with reference to the mode by which the Steam Postal Service between Great Britain and the Australasian Colonies may be extended to the respective Provinces of this Colony with the greatest benefit to each.

2. On this subject the Government of New Zealand has received, as your Honor may be aware, Memorials from the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, from Residents in that Province, from Merchants and Residents in the Province of Canterbury, also, resolutions of the Canterbury Provincial Council, and letters from the Superintendents of Wellington and Canterbury, and Mr. Kelham, the latter objecting to arrangements stated to exist at present with respect to the transmission from Melbourne of English letters for Wellington.

3. These Memorials being numerously and influentially signed, may be assumed, together with the resolutions above-mentioned, to represent the opinion on this question of a large section of the inhabitants of New Zealand, in so far as they were aware of the circumstances of the case; and as the question is one affecting the interests of the whole colony, the Government desires that all the facts connected with it should be placed before the public, with a view to eliciting an expression of opinion in favor of the particular steam route, which, all things considered, it may appear preferable to adopt.