is, for the present, delegated by her Majesty to yourself.

34. The provision of section 80, defining the boundaries of New Zealand, requires a short explanation. It appears to me that, by your commission, the limits of your Government to the South are so defined as to include the Auckland Islands, on which a separate settlement has lately been established by British Colonists and which it would be inconvenient to place within the limits of New Zealand for the purposes of the present Act. The Southern boundary is, therefore, fixed at South Latitude 50°.

35. I have now to add a few words respecting the duties cast upon yourself by the Act, in order to bring the Constitution into operation.

36. By section 1 of the Act existing laws are preserved, and existing legislative authorities retained in action, until the new legislatures are established.

37. The duty of appointing the boundaries of Provinces, and of taking the necessary steps for the elections, both provincial and general, has been entrusted to yourself. This course has been adopted as, upon the whole, more convenient and simpler than that of causing the necessary regulations to be made by Ordinances of the Legislature. But although in terms vested in yourself, you will understand that it is desirable that they should be exercised with the advice of your Executive Council. I refer you to my predecessor’s draft despatch as to the principles on which this division should be made, paragraphs 9, 10, and 11.

38. I have now only to add that I have great pleasure in entrusting to yourself the conduct of this very important measure; and, in the commission of these extensive powers to the colonists of New Zealand, her Majesty’s Government have had abundant opportunities of recognizing, in the correspondence which has taken place on this subject between yourself and their predecessors, your strong attachment to liberal institutions, and the able manner in which you and your Council have both prepared the way for their introduction, and urged upon the Imperial Government the necessity of speedily creating them, as soon as the temporary difficulties which induced you at first to advise their suspension, had passed away. They are, in fact, fully aware that the measure itself, now reduced into a law, owes its shape in a great degree, to your valuable suggestions. They, therefore, do not doubt that your proceedings in order to carry it into execution, will prove satisfactory to the colonists, while an additional reason for their placing this reliance on you is, the confidence with which you are personally regarded by numbers of her Majesty’s subjects of the native race, who have been brought within these few years, to participate in the blessings of religion and social culture. Whatever natural anxiety may still attend the success of this experiment, chiefly relates to the manner in which it may affect their feelings and their interests; but Her Majesty’s Government have the strongest hope that your administration of it may not only prove acceptable to them, but that at no distant time they may be found to avail themselves largely of the Constitutional privileges, thus thrown open to those among them who have made progress in civilization in common with their fellow subjects of the British race.

I have the honor to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient,

Humble Servant,

(Signed) JOHN S. PAKINGTON.

Governor Sir G. Grey, K.C.B.,
&c. &c. &c.

Extract from a Despatch from Earl Grey to Governor Sir George Grey.

Downing Street, February, 1852.

SIR,—I have to acknowledge your despatch No. 121, of August 30th last, transmitting the Provincial Councils Ordinance in the form in which it passed the Legislative Council, and explaining with great clearness and in much detail, your views with respect to the system of government best adapted to the existing condition of New Zealand. I have to thank you for the valuable information contained in this despatch. It has been of great service in preparing the enclosed heads of a Bill, which it is the intention of Her Majesty’s Government to introduce into Parliament in the present Session, for the purpose of establishing the legislative institutions of New Zealand on a permanent footing. In transmitting to you these heads; it is necessary that I should explain, somewhat fully, the principles on which the measure is founded, and the reasons for the departure from your own recommendations which you will observe in some of its provisions.