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bers of their congregations, such as they respectfully submit ought not to be imposed on them more than on others; besides, in some points, being totally inapplicable to the present state of the Colony, and calculated to induce in some cases a criminal neglect of the marriage rite.

Your memorialists therefore pray that, before the present session shall close, your Excellency and your Honourable Council will be pleased to adopt such measures as shall place the Wesleyan Church on a level, in the Marriage Ordinance, with those Churches entitled to marry by license.

Your memorialists respectfully add, that in this prayer they are supported by all the Wesleyan Ministers in the Colony, who, at their last Annual District Meeting, held at Auckland in July 1848, addressed to His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief a Memorial embodying the same views as are herein expressed.

And your memorialists will ever pray, &c.

WALTER LAWRY,
General Superintendent,
New Zealand.

THOMAS BUDDLE,
JOSEPH HORNER FLETCHER.

Auckland, August 11, 1849.

On motion of the Colonial Secretary it was ordered that the Petition presented by him on the 9th instant, on the same subject, from the Kirk Session of the Free Church of Scotland be printed.

To His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, and the Honourable the Legislative Council of New Zealand.

The respectful Memorial of the Kirk Session of the Free Presbyterian Church, Auckland.

Sheweth,—

That while there is in this Colony no Established Church, and consequently no reason why one body of professing Christians should have conferred upon it the possession of rights and privileges to the exclusion of others; by the Marriage Ordinance passed by the Legislative Council of New Zealand in the eleventh year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the right to solemnise marriages has been conferred exclusively upon the United Church of England and Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church.

That whilst the Presbyterians of this Colony have long been wont to enjoy the same rights and liberties which they enjoy in their native country, those rights and liberties have been, by the aforesaid Ordinance, seriously infringed; and many of the Presbyterians in consequence of its partial, unnecessary, and oppressive restrictions have been subjected to much hardship, delay, and expense, or have been obliged to conform to the rites and ceremonies of other churches, and so to violate their conscientious religious scruples.

That while the Ministers of the Presbyterian Church receive no fees, and have no beneficial interest in the solemnisation of marriage, and while in the discharge of their ecclesiastical and spiritual functions, they are controlled by, and answerable to, their ecclesiastical superior alone, by the said Ordinance these functions are interfered with, and certain duties attempted to be imposed upon them, and penalties of the civil power enforced.

That on all these and other grounds, the aforesaid Marriage Ordinance is a great and oppressive grievance to the Presbyterians of this Colony; and your Memorialists would respectfully pray your Excellency and the Honourable the Legislative Council, to take the same into consideration, and repeal or modify its provisions so as to press unduly and oppressively upon none; and your memorialists shall ever pray, &c.

Signed in name, and by the appointment of the Kirk Session of the Free Presbyterian Church, Auckland, this seventh day of August, eighteen hundred and forty-nine years.

GEORGE A. PANTON, Moderator.

The Colonial Secretary moved the order of the day for the further consideration in Committee of the Crown Lands Bill.

Clauses 37 to the end considered, and several amendments introduced. Further consideration of Bill in Committee postponed until Tuesday, 14th instant.

The Colonial Treasurer moved the Order of the Day for the first reading of the “Appropriation Bill.”

Bill read a first time.

Ordered to be read a second time on Tuesday, the 14th instant.

The Colonial Treasurer, according to notice, moved that all Despatches relative to the Marriage Ordinance be laid on the Table.

Mr. Merriman, according to notice, moved that the following Returns be laid on the Table.

1st. “A Return of the estimated Expenditure of the general Government for the year 1849-50, which either in whole or in part falls upon the Province of New Ulster, which are not included in the Estimates already laid upon the table.”

2nd. “A Return of the estimated Expenditure of the Province of New Munster for the years 1849-50-1850-51.”

3rd. “A Quarterly Return of the Revenue and Expenditure of the Colony of New Zealand, from local or imperial funds, from 1st April, 1846 to 1st July, 1849, distinguishing the different heads under which received and expended.”

4th. “A Return of Total Expenditure upon the Roads in the Province of New Ulster, from 1st April, 1846 to 30th June last, specifying the amount expended in each month, and as far as practicable specifying the different items of Expenditure, and showing whether expended on European or Native labour, and also specifying whether expended on Military or Civil labour.”

5th. “A Return of the Work performed, specifying the extent of Roads completed, the locality in which those Roads are situated, and as far as practicable the extent of each piece of Road so completed, the width and extent of Road in progress, the locality in which those Roads are situated, and as far as practicable the estimated expense of completing the Roads so in progress.”

6th. “A Return of the expenses and the several services upon which the Government Schooner has been employed since 1st January, 1847, until the 1st of July last.”

7th. “A like Return of the Government Brig.”

8th. “A Return showing the number of Parkhurst Boys introduced into the Colony, the date of their introduction, and as far as practicable shewing how many of those introduced have been criminally convicted and how many are still resident in the colony at the present date.”

Mr. Barstow according to notice moved that the following Returns be laid on the table:

1st. “Return of all moneys due by or owing to the Government of New Zealand at the expiration of the year 1848-49, showing on