6O

(11.) At the same time I consider it to be indispensable that permanent provision should be made for the maintenance of the various establishments which have been created for the benefit of the Natives. The fact that while the Natives are large contributors to the Revenue, they must for some time have comparatively little influence in a Representative Legislature, affords, as you have observed, a conclusive reason for requiring that the discontinuance of an expenditure in which they are vitally interested without the consent of the Crown, should be effectually guarded against. With this view I am of opinion that the existing Local Legislature should carefully consider what amount of permanent expenditure is required for the establishments in question, and for other objects connected with the interests of the Natives, and should then pass Ordinances by which the amount of this expenditure should be charged upon the Revenue of the colony in the same manner in which in this country various expenses on account of the Civil Government which it is considered inconvenient to submit to annual discussion, have been charged by Parliament on the consolidated fund.

(12.) Under the provisions of the Act of Parliament now in force, the existing Legislature of New Zealand, although maintained only for a period, has full power to pass any Ordinances that may appear necessary for the general interests of the community.

(13.) These Ordinances will continue in force when the authority of the body by which they have been passed shall cease to be available for further legislation, and though they will of course be subject to alteration by the new Legislature which will hereafter be created, no such alteration can take effect without the consent of the Governor as the Representative of the Crown, and would be liable—like all other measures of the Local Legislature—to be disallowed by Her Majesty. An enactment therefore creating a permanent charge on the Revenue for expenditure regarding the Natives would afford them all the security that could be desired.

(14.) The provisions of Sec. 12 of the Ordinance appear to effect all that is necessary in the way of reserving subjects of general importance to the jurisdiction of the Central Legislative Council. There are however many other heads on which it should seem very expedient that uniformity of legislation should be maintained in the Islands. Such are for instance, Criminal Laws inflicting either the punishment of death, or secondary punishment of serious magnitude—Laws regulating the course of inheritance of real or personal property, or the mode of disposing of property by will, and the extent of power exercisable by a Testator—Laws prescribing rules for the naturalization of aliens—and, perhaps, Laws regulating the form and effect of deeds and other evidence of contracts.

(15.) And it is to be observed that in points of this kind, convenience requires not only the Law of the different Provinces should not merely be framed with a view to substantial similarity, but that it should be absolutely identical in language; both because a mere difference in wording will often result in important though unintentional differences of substance; and also in order that decisions in Courts of Law given in one Province may apply, beyond possibility of doubt, to the Law as it stands in others.

(16.) These considerations, however, I leave to your judgment, without wishing to prescribe to you any particular manner of carrying them into execution. It may be that the power possessed by the Lieutenant-Governors of refusing their assent to any law infringing this desirable uniformity which might be passed by the Legislatures of the Provinces would be sufficient to preserve them from material dissidence on these subjects, without the necessity of strictly reserving them for central legislation.

(17.) I concur, further, in the suggestion of your despatch No. 76, of 22nd June, 1849, that as legislation respecting the Native races is not one of the subjects exclusively reserved for the general Legislature by the Ordinance of Nov. 18th, the Lieutenant-Governors of the Provinces and yourself, should for the present, reserve for Her Majesty’s assent or disallowance any Ordinance which may be passed amending or repealing any Law affecting the interests of the Native race to which the Royal Assent has once been given by the Governor. You will therefore take care that a suspending clause be inserted in all such Ordinances without which you will understand that it is Her Majesty’s pleasure that they should not be assented to on Her behalf by the Governor or Lieutenant Governors of New Zealand. This instruction will of course apply to any Ordinance which may be passed relating to expenditure in which the Native race are interested.

(18.) With respect to the boundaries between the Provinces, I understand you to be of opinion (from your despatch of 6th Feb., 1849,) that there is no substantial objection (representative institutions being for the present postponed) to that proposed in my despatch of 28th Feb., 1848, between New Ulster and New Munster. You are therefore authorized to proclaim it at once.

(19.) The separation from New Munster of the two other projected Provinces, of which Otago and New Canterbury are to be the nuclei respectively, must, for the present, be postponed until the settlement of the latter is somewhat more advanced and the general convenience can be consulted with more certainty as to its limits.

(20.) It will also be necessary, before these New Provinces are proclaimed, that they should be able to defray the expenses of the establishments which will thus be required, without assistance either from the Parliamentary Grant or from the revenue of the older Provinces. It is impossible while there is ample room in the old settlements for all the emigrants who desire to go to New Zealand, that Her Majesty’s Government should consent to the indefinite multiplication of new settlements at a distance from those originally formed, except on the condition that those who think proper to form such new settlements will be ready to bear the whole of the charges which are thus rendered necessary for additional Government establishments.

I have, &c.,
(Signed) Grey.

True Copy.
C. L. Nugent,
Private Secretary.

PROCLAMATION.

By His Excellency Sir George Grey, a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Islands of New Zealand, and Governor of the Provinces of New Ulster and New Munster, and Vice Admiral of the same, &c., &c.

WHEREAS, the undermentioned Ordinance enacted by the Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, was passed in the Twelfth Year of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, viz:—

“An Ordinance to provide for the Establishment of Provincial Legislative Councils in the colony of New Zealand,” Session 9, No. 1, which Ordinance having been by the Right Honourable Earl Grey, one of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State