The New Zealand Constitutional Act of 1846, together with the Charter and Instructions issued in consequence, so far as related to the establishment of representative institutions, were suspended for five years in 1848, in consequence of the danger of introducing those institutions, in a part at least of the Islands, at that particular conjuncture. By the Act passed in order to effect that suspension, all powers were vested in yourself and the existing Legislative Council, to establish such institutions of a provisional character during the suspension as you might deem fit.

These powers you employed, in the first place, by constituting Provincial Councils on the model of the General Legislative Council. Subsequently, as the increase of the settlement and the quiet and orderly condition of the native population convinced you that the dangers which you had at first apprehended, were in the course of removal, you urged on Her Majesty’s Government the expediency of commencing the introduction of the representative principle into the government of New Zealand, before the period allotted for the suspension of the Charter should expire.

Her Majesty’s Government in the continued exercise of that confidence in your judgment and knowledge of the peculiar state of society in New Zealand, which had originally induced them to accede to your proposal for deferring the grant of representative institutions to the colony, believed that no better course could be taken than that of relying on your opinion on this subject also; and you were therefore instructed to avail yourself of the power Parliament had entrusted to you, by taking measures for the establishment of Representative Provincial Legislatures. In accordance with these instructions, you have introduced the Provincial Councils Ordinance, which was first submitted to me in draft with your despatch of October 24, 1850, and which you have now transmitted in the form of a law.

I take the opportunity, while thus detailing the history of these transactions, to mention that my despatch of the 2nd April last, acknowledging the receipt of the draft of this Ordinance, does not appear to have reached you before it was passed into law, as certain amendments, which I then pointed out as desirable, have not been inserted in it. I still trust, however, that I may hear from you in reply to that despatch, if not before the Bill which has been prepared must be submitted to Parliament, at all events in time for the consideration, during its progress, of any remarks which may be suggested to you by my observations on the draft Ordinance.

Under these circumstances, if no further steps were taken by Parliament with reference to the New Zealand Constitution, the suspending Act of 1848 would expire on March 7, 1853. The Provincial Councils Ordinance created under it would therefore also expire, together with the existing Legislative Council; and the Constitution framed in and under the Act of 1846 would, ipso facto, take their place.

Her Majesty’s Government, however, on a deliberate consideration of the various despatches which you have addressed to me, have come to the conclusion that it would be inexpedient to leave the Act of 1846 to come thus into force; because they are of opinion that the changes which have taken place in the state of affairs in New Zealand, and the additional information which has been obtained since that measure was passed, suggest the propriety of various modifications, both in its substance and form, although its essential principles ought, in their judgment, to be preserved.

The most important of these principles, and that, which, in fact, formed the foundation of the whole measure, was the creation of co-existent General and Provincial Legislatures. On the question whether this arrangement ought to be adhered to, Her Majesty’s Government have not failed to give full consideration to your own views and statements, and to those also which have reached them through you from various bodies of settlers in New Zealand, both for and against the scheme of Provincial Councils. The result of their deliberation is, that they concur with you in believing that the natural features of the island, the distance of the settlements, the severalty of their local interests, however common those interests may be on some subjects, and the consequent difficulty of forming a General Legislature which should suffice to perform all the ordinary functions of legislation, all present arguments confirming the views entertained in 1846, in favour of the creation of Local Legislatures.

With respect to the number of provinces into which New Zealand should for the present be divided, Her Majesty’s Government have seen no reason for dissenting from your proposal; and it is