“it shall be lawful for His Excellency the Governor, from time to time, as to him shall seem meet, by Proclamation, to declare any House, Building, Enclosure, or Place, to be a Public Gaol; and from and after the publication of any such Proclamation, such House, Building, Enclosure, or Place, shall be deemed and taken to be a Public Gaol.”

And whereas, it is desirable that the Building now used as a Lock-up in the Town of Lyttelton, in the District of Canterbury, in the Province of New Munster, should be proclaimed to be a Public Gaol of the Colony.

Now therefore, I, the Governor of the said Province of New Munster, do hereby proclaim and declare that the Building aforesaid, shall be deemed and taken to be one of the Public Gaols of the Colony of New Zealand.

Given under my hand, and issued under the Public Seal of the Province of New Munster, in the Islands of New Zealand, at Government House, at Wellington, this Seventeenth day of May, in the Year of Our Lord One thousand Eight hundred and Fifty one.

G. GREY,
Governor.

By His Excellency’s command,
ALFRED DOMETT,
Colonial Secretary.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS IN THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, OF THE ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND.

WELLINGTON, MONDAY, MAY 19, 1851.

Present—

His Excellency Sir George Grey, K.C.B., Governor-in-Chief.

His Excellency Edward John Eyre, Lieutenant-Governor of New Munster.

The Hon. Lieut.-Col. M’Cleverty, Senior Military Officer.

The Hon. Alfred Domett, Colonial Secretary.

The Hon. D. Wakefield, Attorney-General.

The Hon. H. W. Petre, Colonial Treasurer.

The Hon. Stephen Carkeek, Collector of Customs.

The Hon. Wm. Hickson.

” ” Wm. Mein Smith.

The Council met pursuant to summons.

The Rev. Robert Cole, M. A., Colonial Chaplain, being in attendance, read prayers.

The following Gentlemen having taken the prescribed oath, took their seats :—

The Hon. Wm. Mein Smith.

” ” Stephen Carkeek.

His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief then opened the Council by reading his Address.

GENTLEMEN OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF THE NEW ZEALAND ISLANDS,—

“In conformity with the guarantee I formerly gave to the Provincial Legislature of New Munster regarding the places at which the meetings of the General Legislative Council of these Islands should be held, I have, upon the present occasion, caused the members of the General Legislative Council to be summoned to meet me at Wellington for the despatch of business.

There seems also to have been a peculiar propriety in my now assembling you in the Southern Province, as the questions to be committed to your consideration chiefly involve matters connected with the interests of New Munster: indeed, upon the proper solution of some of these, it may be said that the whole future prosperity of this colony depends.

This Province also, at the present moment, appears to have peculiar claims upon your consideration, from the fact of two large and distinct settlements having been recently formed respectively at Canterbury and Otago, by the establishment of which the importance, population, and wealth of New Munster have been greatly increased.

I entertain no doubt that the enterprise which led our countrymen to abandon their country, to form new homes, and to found these settlements in these Islands, will receive a rich reward, as the localities they have respectively occupied abound with natural advantages, and with resources which, when developed by the industry of civilized man, will soon afford ample means for the creation of private wealth, and of a considerable commerce which will enrich, not only this colony, but also the parent state. You will, however, I am sure, feel that you should omit no means within your reach, or which your experience may suggest to you, to foster the interests of these young communities, and to enable their inhabitants profitably to develop the resources of the country.

In approaching the consideration of the various questions which will demand your attention, it must be gratifying to all to reflect that these Islands have now, under the blessing of Divine Providence, enjoyed so long a repose from the calamities of war, and have attained such a prosperous condition; so that the task you are now about to enter upon is not, as heretofore, that of devising the means of overcoming urgent and immediate danger, or of remedying passing evils, but the far more grateful one of developing the resources of the country, and of adopting measures which may hold out a fair prospect of rendering permanent the present prosperous state of New Zealand.