SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE
DIEU ET MON DROIT

NEW ZEALAND
GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

Published by Authority.

All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signature thereunto
annexed, are to be considered as Official Communications made to those Persons to whom they may
relate.

By His Excellency's Command,
ANDREW SINCLAIR, Colonial Secretary.

VOL. VII. AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, JULY 27, 1847. No. 15.

JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS
IN THE
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

MONDAY, 26TH DAY OF JULY, 1847.
PRESENT:

His Excellency George Grey, Lieutenant-Go-
vernor,

The Honorable Andrew Sinclair, Colonial Se-
cretary,

The Honorable William Swainson. Attorney
General,

The Honorable Alexander Shepherd, Colonial
Treasurer,

William Brown, Esquire,
William Donnelly, Esquire.
Absent-A. Domett, Esquire.

The Council met pursuant to summons.

The Rev. J. F. Churton, Colonial Chaplain,
being in attendance, read prayers.

The Lieutenant Governor then opened the
Council with the following

ADDRESS:

GENTLEMEN,

The Despatches which have been recently published
in the Government Gazette, will in some degree have
made you acquainted with the circumstances which have
rendered it proper for me to have recourse to your
counsel and advice, previously to the introduction of
the intended change in the form of Government of this
Colony.

In accordance with the custom which I have usually
adopted, I should, under ordinary circumstances, have
preferred laying those despatches before this Council,
previously to their publication. You will, however, I
feel sure, acquit me of any intentional want of respect
to the Legislative body, when I state, that my object
in directing their publication, was to enable the Lieu-
tenant Governor, who intended to proceed immediately
to the Southern settlements, to take down with him in-
telligence, which is so interesting and important to
the inhabitants of them. I have always lamented the
difficulty which has been experienced in keeping the
Southern settlements well informed upon the proceed-
ings of the Executive Government and the Legislature,
and I am sure you would have joined me in regret-
ting that immediately before the separation of the two
colonies, any just ground of complaint should have
been allowed to exist, of the Government neglecting
to avail itself of the earliest opportunity of conveying
to Wellington, the intelligence of which its inhabitants
will now be put in possession.

It will be my duty, in the course of this session, to
submit to your consideration, two distinct classes of
laws. The first will embrace such laws as seem to be
immediately required upon those subjects which, under
the new constitution, the General Assembly alone will
have the power of Legislating upon, for both provinces,
into which these Islands are to be divided; as well as
laws upon those subjects, regarding which it appears
desirable, in as far as possible, to secure an almost
absolute uniformity of legislation, throughout the New
Zealand Islands. The second class will comprise those
laws upon subjects which affect chiefly local interests,
but which are yet of so pressing a character, that it is
indispensable immediately to legislate upon them, with-
out waiting the formation of Legislative bodies for each
colony.

The first class of laws will evidently require the most
scrupulous care and attention upon your part, and I
rely with confidence upon your ability to enable me
successfully to legislate upon these subjects. Amongst
the laws of this class to which I shall have to direct
your attention, will be the law for the regulation of the
Currency of this Colony, which the Secretary of State
has directed me to lay before you :-a law to regulate
Marriages, and to regulate the Registry of Marriages,
Births, and Deaths. These being subjects upon which
I think that uniformity of legislation is indispensable.
I shall also submit for your consideration a law to pro-
vide for the payment of the Principal and Interest of
our Colonial Debt, from the revenues of the two Pro-
vinces into which New Zealand is about to be divided;
as well as a law to make provision from the revenues