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Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, 31st August, 1843.

H IS Excellency the Officer Administering
the Government has been pleased to direct
the publication of the following Despatch,
recently received from the Right Honorable the
Secretary of State for the Colonies.

By His Excellency's Command,
(For the Colonial Secretary),

WILLIAM CONNELL.

(COPY.)

Downing-street,
18th January, 1843.

SIR—

I have had the honor to receive and lay
before the Queen the congratulatory Address
on the birth of the Prince of Wales, which
accompanied your Despatch No. 53, of the
20th of June last, and I have to request that
you will acquaint the parties who signed these
Addresses, that the Queen was pleased to re-
ceive them very graciously.

I have the honor to be,
Sir,
&c., &c., &c.

(Signed) STANLEY.

GOVERNOR HOBSON,
&c., &c., &c.

GOVERNMENT NOTICE.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, 6th September, 1843.

H IS Excellency the Officer Administering
the Government directs it to be notified
that the Ordinances of the Legislative Council
of this Colony, intituled and numbered as be-
low, have been disallowed by Her Majesty.

Session 2, No. 6. An Ordinance to provide
for the Establishment and Regulation of Muni-
cipal Corporations.

Session 2, No. 8. An Ordinance for Regula-
ting the Conveyance and Postage of Letters.

Session 2, No. 14. An Ordinance to amend
an Ordinance enacted by the Governor of New
Zealand, with the advice and consent of the
Legislative Council thereof, Session 1, No. 2.

With reference to the disallowance of the
above Ordinances, His Excellency has been
pleased to direct the publication, for general
informations of the following extracts from des-
patches received from the Right Honorable the
Secretar of State for the Colonies.

MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS' ORDINANCE.

"The power of establishing Beacons and
Light Houses is a power which, on the most
obvious grounds of public policy, is reserved by
the Constitution to the Crown as a prerogative
which cannot properly be transferred to any
other authority. Maritime disasters of the
most formidable kind would probably result

from confiding this duty to any body of persons
for whose skill and stability of purpose, and
adequacy of resources, there was not the most
absolute security. But it is impossible to as-
cribe those qualifications to Municipal Corpora-
tions still in their infancy, wholly destitute of
Naval or Hydrographical knowledge, composed
by popular election, and destitute of any funds
but such as may result from local assessments.

"The 7th clause of this Ordinance vests in
the Corporation all lands within its limits, with
the exception of certain reserves; an exception
which would still leave to the Corporations, as
their entire property, large and valuable tracts
of land, for the Borough may include a circle of
14 miles in diameter.

"The objections to this enactment are con-
clusive. First-it is repugnant to the Act of
the last session of Parliament for regulating the
sale of the waste lands of the Crown in the Aus-
tralian Colonies; and, secondly-it vests in the
Corporations property of the Crown which Her
Majesty had not placed at the disposal of the
Local Legislature; and, thirdly-it may present
an opportunity for the improvident waste of a
large extent of most valuable land, and takes
no effective security whatever against such
abuses.

"For these reasons the Queen commands me
to signify to you Her disallowance of this Ordi-
nance, though Her Majesty is pleased to sanc-
tion the enactment of another Law, by the
Local Legislature, for the same general purpose,
excluding these objectionable provisions."

POST OFFICE ORDINANCE.

"The Postmaster-General having undertaken
the conduct of that service, no place is left for
the operation of the Local enactment."

LAND CLAIMS' ORDINANCE.

"In my despatch, No. 76, of the 1st ultimo,
I informed you that Her Majesty's decision had
been suspended on the Act of your Government,
passed on the 25th February, 1842, No. 14,
to amend an Ordinance enacted by the Gover-
nor of New Zealand, with the advice and con-
sent of the Legislative Council thereof, Session
1, No. 2, for the settlement of Land Claims
within the Colony.'

"I have now to intimate to you Her Majesty's
decision with regard to that Act, and in so doing
I think it right to acquaint you generally with
the grounds of that decision.

"When the British Government undertook
to colonize New Zealand, it was with the dis-
tinct intention not to admit that any titles to
land could be valid which were not derived
from or expressly confirmed by the authority of
Her Majesty.

"This principle was laid down in Lord Nor-
manby's instructions to you on your first ap-
pointment to proceed from England to New
Zealand, and it was publicly announced in the
earliest Proclamations issued, both in Sydney
and in New Zealand, on assuming the Sove-
reignty of those Islands.