Hon. the Colonial Secretary of New Munster,

"The Collector of Customs,
Dillon Bell,
W. O. Cautley,
G. Cutfield,
C. A. Dillon,
Capt. Smith.

Noes.

His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor,
Hon. Col. McClevery,
The Attorney General of New Zealand,
Colonial Treasurer.

Motion then put and carried.

On the motion of the Colonial Secretary of New Munster, seconded by the Colonial Secretary of New Zealand, "Licensing Amendment Ordinance" read a third time, and passed.

His Excellency laid on the table a copy of a letter from the Governor-in-Chief addressed to Lieutenant Governor Wynyard, together with a copy of a Charter of Incorporation of Borough of Auckland, dated Government House, Wellington, July 29th, 1851.

His Excellency then adjourned the Council at three o’clock sine die.

H. S. Harrison,
Clerk of Council.

Council Chamber,
August 2, 1851.

Extract from a Despatch from the Right Honorable Earl Grey to the Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand.

(Laid before the Council July 22, 1851.)

No. 23. Downing-street,
19th February, 1851.

Sir,

In acknowledging your despatch No. 98, of September 20th, in which you report the resignation of certain Members of the Legislative Council of New Zealand, I will take the opportunity of advertising to your former despatch, No. 161, of November 30th, 1849, in which you proposed the introduction of representative institutions into New Zealand in the beginning of the present year.

2. I have, as yet, refrained from answering this despatch, not from any reluctance on the part of her Majesty’s Government to entertain the question to which it relates, or from any distrust of your judgment in thus proposing the extension of free institutions, at an earlier period than was before contemplated, into the community over which you preside; but from a sense of the practical difficulties which oppose the immediate realization of your views. Fully admitting the principles which you advocate, and also the force of your testimony to the fitness of the community of New Zealand for the proposed change, the manner of effecting it required serious consideration, not only from its own inherent difficulties, but because it could not be done without the authority of Parliament.

3. I therefore postponed my answer until it could be determined whether it was possible to submit any measure on the subject of the constitution of New Zealand to Parliament during the present session. I must now inform you that upon a full review of the various subjects which must necessarily be brought before the Legislature in the present session, her Majesty’s Government have come to the conclusion that it probably will not be in their power, without interfering with measures of more pressing urgency, to introduce in this session a bill for determining the future constitution of the Government of New Zealand, since from the experience of the discussions on the bill for extending to the other Australasian Colonies the constitution already established in New South Wales, it is evident that the consideration of such a measure would necessarily occupy a very large portion of the public time.

4. These reasons, in addition to those already stated in my despatch of the 22nd of December, 1849, have induced me to consent to the continued postponement of a more comprehensive measure, and I have felt the less difficulty in doing so, inasmuch as the powers with which you are already invested by the Suspending Act of 1848 enable you to introduce the representative principle, of your own authority, into the Legislatures of the Provinces into which New Zealand is divided. If you think the time has arrived for the safe exercise of those powers, I wish you to use them forthwith. For it would, in my opinion, be attended with much convenience that the Provincial Councils should be re-constituted on this basis before the constitution of the General Legislature is altered.

5. The best model for these Provincial Councils, which must be regarded as temporary and subordinate institutions, will probably be attained by introducing a number of elective members exceeding the non-elective; but the proportions, and the other details, I leave to yourself.

6. I agree with you in thinking that hereafter, when the population of the colony shall have increased, and the means of communication been improved, many of the subjects which must for the present be dealt with by these separate Legislatures