✨ Government Reform Proposal
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For regulating the current coin of the said Islands, or any part thereof, or the issue therein of any bills, notes, or other paper currency.
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For determining the weights and measures to be used in the said colony or in any part thereof.
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For regulating Post offices within, and the carriage of letters between different parts of the said Islands.
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For establishing laws relating to bankruptcy and insolvency.
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For the erection of beacons and light-houses on the coasts of the said islands.
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For the imposition of any dues or other charges on shipping at any Port or Harbour within the same.
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For regulating marriages within the same or any part thereof.
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For affecting Crown lands, or lands belonging to the aboriginal inhabitants, or for imposing any disabilities or restrictions on persons of the native race, to which persons of European birth or descent would not also be subjected.
And I would further recommend that the Provincial Legislative Councils, in making laws or Ordinances, should conform to and observe all such instructions as may from time to time be issued by Her Majesty for their guidance thereon.
And that such laws or Ordinances should be made subject to the approval or disallowance of Her Majesty; and that no Ordinance of any Provincial Legislative Council should be assented to by the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor without the previous sanction of the Governor-in-Chief.
I would recommend that the right of voting at elections should be exercised by such ‘European subjects’ of Her Majesty as can read and write, and who have either an estate of freehold in possession, in lands or tenements situated within the district for which such vote is to be given, of the value of thirty pounds; or who are householders within such district occupying a dwelling within the limits of a town of the annual value of £10, or in the country of the annual value of £5.
And I would recommend that such rights of voting should be exercised by such native subjects of Her Majesty as she possessed of property in Government securities, in vessels, or in tenements, within the district for which their vote is to be given, of the value of £200; and who may be authorised to exercise such right by certificate granted to them for that purpose by the Governor-in-Chief.
And I should also wish, if possible, to see a power given to the Governor-in-Chief to change this native franchise from time to time by proclamation. Such proclamations being subject to be disallowed by Her Majesty.
The main features of the form of Government thus proposed to be introduced into these Islands are adopted from the constitution your Lordship intended to have been given to New Zealand, and its intention may, in general terms, be said to be to bestow upon each Province into which New Zealand may hereafter be divided, whose large powers of self-government which their distance from the chief seat of Government, and the great difficulties at present experienced in communicating with the different portions of such extensive Islands, appear to render necessary, whilst at the same time an immediate means is provided of legislating by means of a general legislature on all those subjects of general interest, upon which it is most important uniform laws should prevail throughout the whole territory; and as it might ultimately be a great misfortune to the whole country to be split up into so many independent Sovereign States, it is proposed to provide in the General Assembly a body which may hereafter absorb into itself many of those powers which are in the first instance given to the Provincial Legislative Councils, by constantly increasing the number of subjects on which general laws for the whole of New Zealand are made, and by the spread of population uniting the now scattered settlements into one community, the Provincial Legislative Councils may gradually merge into the form of District Councils with extended powers of legislation.
The reasons which have induced me to recommend that the General Legislature of New Zealand should consist of two Chambers, a Legislative Council and a House of Representatives, are so obvious, that I need not trouble your Lordship by stating them here.
I have been induced to recommend that the Provincial Legislative Councils should consist of only one Chamber, because I
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✨ LLM interpretation of page content
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Proposal for Government Reform in New Zealand
(continued from previous page)
🏛️ Governance & Central AdministrationGovernment reform, Legislative Councils, Municipal Corporations, Representative Institutions, Provincial Legislative Councils, General Assembly, House of Representatives
New Munster Gazette 1849, No 19