PROCLAMATION.

By His Excellency Sir George Grey,
K.C.B., Governor-in-Chief in and
over the Islands of New Zealand,
and Governor of the Provinces of
New Ulster and New Munster, and
Vice Admiral of the same, &c.,
&c., &c.

WHEREAS the undermentioned Ordi-
nance, enacted by the Governor-in-
Chief of New Zealand, with the advice and
consent of the Legislative Council thereof, was
passed in the 12th year of the reign of Her
Majesty Queen Victoria, No. 1, “an Ordinance
“to provide for the establishment of Provin-
“cial Legislative Councils in the Colony of New
“Zealand, Session 9, which Ordinance having
been by the Right Honourable Earl Grey, one
of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State,
laid before the Queen, Her Majesty has been
pleased to confirm and allow the same.

Now, therefore, I, the Governor-in-Chief of
New Zealand, do hereby proclaim and make
known to all whom it may concern, that Her
Majesty has been graciously pleased to con-
firm and allow the before-mentioned Ordi-
nance.

Given under my Hand and issued under
the Public Seal of the Islands of New
Zealand, Government House, at
(L.S.) Auckland, in the Province of New
Ulster, this tenth day of July in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and fifty.

(Signed) G. GREY,
Governor-in-Chief.

By His Excellency’s command,
(Signed) C. A. Dillon,
Civil Secretary.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

Civil Secretary’s Office,
Auckland, July 18th, 1850.

HIS Excellency the Governor-in-Chief has
been pleased to direct the publication of
the subjoined Despatch, lately received from
the Right Honourable the Secretary of State
for the Colonies.

By His Excellency’s command,
C. A. Dillon,
Civil Secretary.

DESPATCH FROM EARL GREY TO
GOVERNOR GREY.

Downing-street, 23rd Dec., 1849.

Sir,—I have to acknowledge the series
of Despatches enumerated by dates and num-
bers in the margin, all of them relating to the
subject of the Establishment of Provincial Le-
gislative Councils, and to that of the proposed
introduction at a future time of representative
Government in one or both of the Provinces
into which New Zealand is now divided, and

1. My answer to these Despatches has been
   hitherto postponed, because, being made aware
   by your Despatch of November 29, 1848, that
   the Ordinance of November 18, 1848, for the
   establishment of Provincial Legislative Coun-
   cils was already in operation for the province
   of New Munster, I considered it most advisable
   to wait for further accounts of the manner in
   which it had been received, and of the general
   state of the colony, before submitting it to the
   Queen for confirmation. I have now to inform
   you that Her Majesty has been pleased to con-
   firm and allow this Ordinance. You will com-
   municate Her Majesty’s decision to the inha-
   bitants of the colony under your government,
   by a proclamation to be published in the usual
   and most authentic manner.

2. I likewise concur entirely in your views
   and proposals respecting the future introduc-
   tion of representative institutions, by the crea-
   tion of Legislative bodies, such as you have
   described, exercising the same functions re-
   spectively as the General and Provincial Coun-
   cils now constituted by you.

3. But, at the same time, I do not think it
   at all advisable that Parliament should inter-
   fere (in the manner proposed in the resolution
   of the Council of New Munster, and in your
   despatch of February 2, 1849) by passing at
   present any new Act for the purpose of giving
   effect to these views. For I do not perceive
   that you propose that any change in the exist-
   ing form of government beyond such changes
   as you are empowered to make with the ad-
   vice of your Legislative Council, by the Act of
   11th & 12th Vict. ch. 5) should actually come
   into operation before the expiration of the five
   years for which the constitution of the island
   is suspended. This being the case, I consider
   it to be manifestly inexpedient that Parlia-
   ment should now pass an Act in order to make pro-
   vision for a time as yet so far distant, when it
   is quite possible that in the interval experience
   may point out some advisable changes in the
   details, if not in the general features, of such a
   measure. Nor can it be necessary to intro-
   duce such a Bill into Parliament for the mere
   purpose of affording to the colonists a guaran-
   tee that their enjoyment of representative insti-
   tutions shall not be unnecessarily delayed: since
   by the Acts now in force the suspension of those
   institutions can last only for the five years
   above mentioned, at the end of which time they
   will, of themselves, come into operation, and it
   is certain that nothing but a sense of obvious
   necessity would induce Parliament to continue
   their suspension.

4. With respect to the postponement for the
   present of the introduction of those institutions,
   I entirely concur in the reasons which you
   have assigned for it, in your recent despatches,
   particularly that of March 22, 1849, confirmed
   as its representations are by the fuller
   description of the state of society contained in
   your progress of the Colony contained in your
   Despatch of July 9, 1849, transmitting the
   Blue Book. You have advanced reasons appa-