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The Council adjourned at half-past four o’clock until three o’clock on Saturday, the 23rd instant.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1848.

Present—

His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief.

His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor,

and all the members.

The Council met pursuant to adjournment.

The minutes of the last meeting read and confirmed.

The following Reply of his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief to the Address of the Legislative Council of New Munster, presented on Friday, the 22nd instant, was then delivered:

I feel much pleasure in complying with the wishes of the Legislative Council, as expressed in their address of the 22nd instant, by informing them,—

1. That I have reported it to her Majesty’s Government, as my opinion, that a complete system of representative government of the form after-mentioned, may with safety be introduced into the whole of the New Zealand Islands, at the date when the act suspending the Constitution recently conferred upon these Islands expires.

2. That I have recommended that, at that date, a general assembly should be constituted for the whole Islands, consisting of a legislative council composed of persons summoned thereto by her Majesty; and of an assembly to be composed of representatives, returned by the several provinces into which New Zealand may be divided, in such proportions as the European population of each province may bear to the European population of the whole Islands, in so nearly as these several amounts of population can be ascertained.

3. That I have further to recommend that a legislative council, consisting of one chamber, should be constituted in each province into which New Zealand may be divided; to be composed of persons summoned thereto by her Majesty, and of representatives elected thereto by the electors of the province; in which chamber the Governor should not have a seat.

4. That I have recommended that the General Assembly for the New Zealand Islands should possess in full the ample powers of legislation which are usually conferred upon such assemblies; and that I have further recommended that the provincial legislative councils should have (until any alteration on that subject should be made by the General Assembly) the same powers of legislation as are conferred on the provincial legislative councils, by the ordinance which provides for the establishment of provincial legislative councils in the colony of New Zealand.

5. That I have recommended that those districts which desire to have municipal corporations, should have such institutions bestowed upon them; but that the possession of the advantage of a provincial legislative council should in no way be made dependent upon a district accepting a municipal corporation or otherwise.

Relying, indeed, with confidence in your Excellency’s consenting to afford the detailed information which they ask, the Council would respectfully request you to acquaint them, at the earliest opportunity, with the purport of the recommendations which your Excellency may have addressed to her Majesty’s Government on the subject.

Council Chamber, Wellington,

December 22, 1848.

Address read and received.

The Council resumed the consideration of the standing orders, and adopted the rules, from ten to thirty-three inclusive.

Further consideration postponed.

Vice of New Munster, while they acknowledge the clear and comprehensive character of the speech with which your Excellency opened the present session, desires nevertheless to address your Excellency requesting that you will be pleased to afford such further information to the Council on the subject of the introduction of a Representative form of Government into this Province, as may put them fully in possession of your Excellency’s views, and of the plan which it is your intention to submit to her Majesty’s Government.

Had not Parliament conferred a Constitution upon the colony, and had that Constitution not been subsequently suspended at your Excellency’s sole and urgent instance, the Council might perhaps have been satisfied with the general allusion to your intentions on this point contained in your Excellency’s address on the opening of the Council. But having regard to all that has passed in Parliament and elsewhere on the subject of introducing Representative institutions into the whole colony, and especially to the probable large increase of the population of this province at an early period by the foundation of important settlements, the Council would submit to your Excellency, that in their opinion the Government would best consult the interests and feelings of the whole community, and most efficiently conduce to extensive immigration into the colony, by once declaring as distinctly as possible in detail both the character and composition of the Representative Government, which your Excellency stated in general terms you should recommend for adoption by her Majesty’s Government, and also whether your Excellency has it in contemplation to take any steps in conjunction with the Executive Council to secure that adoption at the earliest possible period.

The Council are unwilling to trouble your Excellency here with an enumeration of all the points on which they wish for information. But they submit that the questions which they more especially hope to receive an assurance upon are—First, the period within which the representative form of Government which your Excellency proposes shall certainly be introduced into this province. Secondly, the principle upon which you propose that the elective franchise shall be based. And, thirdly, the power and constitution of such representative assemblies as will be created.