tive Government on the basis of complete Min-
isterial Responsibility."

116
not be indefinitely suspended: and, trusting
that a majority of the House may yet, after
reflection, be willing to co-operate with him
in passing laws which are greatly needed by
the colony, he intends forthwith to prorogue
the Parliament for but a short period, and to
lay before them when they reassemble, his
views of what the wants and best interests of
the colony demand.

By his Message No. 25, the Officer admin-
istering the Government informed the House
that he believed himself to be absolutely pre-
cluded by the Royal Instructions from estab-
lishing Ministerial Responsibility in a com-
plete form; and not anything contained in the
present Address from the House is calculated
to lead him to a different conclusion. His sense
of duty absolutely forbids him to make the
concession now required in terms of the most
positive character; and he has only to repeat
the 'settled conviction of his mind that by
yielding on the point of duty he should de-
serve the censure of Her Majesty and incur
the disapprobation of the Colonists of New
Zealand.

It is therefore plain that a difference has
taken place between the House of Represen-
tatives and the Officer administering the Go-
vernment, which is at this moment irrecon-
cilable. The present Address from the
House coupled with his own unaltered sense
of duty to Her Majesty and the Colony, leaves
him without a hope of being able to restore
for the present that kind of Ministerial Res-
ponsibility which recently gave so much
satisfaction to himself and apparently to the
House and the public. Neither adverting to
the early proceedings of the House with re-
gard to Ministerial Responsibility-to the
whole character of the Address now before
him-and to the large majority by which it
was adopted, can the Officer administering
the Government think it possible that the
House should carry on business without any
ministerial communication between them and
the head of the Government. He is pain-
fully convinced that, as respects Legislation
for the service of the Colony, the Session
has come to an end.

Under these new circumstances as produced
by the new demand of the House, the or-
dinary duty of the Officer Administering the
Government would be to prorogue the Par-
liament indefinitely, and to submit the whole
subject to Her Majesty and the Imperial Par-
liament. But as he has before in his anxiety
to do what he thought would be serviceable
and very agreeable to the people of the colony,
taken steps and incurred responsibility
beyond the ordinary duty of an accidental and
temporary administrator of the Government,
so now-with the same disposition towards
the colonists, he clings to the hope that
Legislation by the General Assembly may

In the meanwhile it will be his endeavour
to add to the Executive Council such a
number of members, being members of the
Legislature, as shall give to all the Provinces
an effectual voice and influence in both the
Legislative and Executive proceedings of the
Head of the Government. And he further
intends, with the view of accelerating as much
as possible the establishment of complete
Ministerial Responsibility in New Zealand, to
despatch without delay to Her Majesty's Go-
vernment an earnest request that they may be
pleased, either by means of the Royal Pre-
rogative, or by the aid of Parliament, to enable
the General Assembly to pass an effectual'
measure for establishing Responsible Govern-
ment in this Colony according to the forms
and usages of the British Constitution. After
the brief recess of the General Assembly its
two Houses will determine whether it may not
also be expedient for them to concur with the
Officer administering the Government in passing
a Bill for the same purpose, (which, of course,
would be reserved for Her Majesty's assent,)
so that no means may be neglected of acquiring
for the Colony in the shortest possible time, a
Political Constitution to which the House
of Representatives do not attach more import-
ance, and which they are not more desirous of
obtaining for this Colony than the Officer Ad-
ministering the Government.

R. H. WYNYARD,
Officer Administering the Government.

Government House,
Auckland, 17th August, 1854.

. MESSAGE No. 33.

The Officer Administering the Government
transmits to the House of Representatives a
copy of the New Zealand Government Gazette
containing a Proclamation proroguing the
General Assembly until Thursday, the 31st
instant.

R. H. WYNYARD,
Officer Administering the Government.
Government House,
Auckland, 17th August, 1854.

Printed by WILLIAMSON & WILSON, for the New Zealand Government.