३
SOIT QUI MALY
HONT 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, and are to be obeyed accordingly.
By His Excellency's Command,
ANDREW SINCLAIR, Colonial Secretary.

VOL. II.] AUCKLAND, MONDAY, SEPT. 18, 1854. [No. 28.

CENERAL ASSEMBLY
SATURDAY, 16TH SEPTEMBER, 1854.

His Excellency the Officer admin-
istering the Government prorogued
the General Assembly at the Council
Chamber, at 3 o'clock, p.m., when
His Excellency delivered the follow-
ing

ADDRESS.

Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council
and Gentlemen of the House of Represen-
tatives.-

You will be glad to learn that the state
of the public business enables me to bring the
present Session to a close.

On the occasion of its first meeting I urged
upon the consideration of the Assembly the ne-
cessity of deciding upon the most advantageous
apportionment of power between the General and
the Provincial authorities, of maturing the mea-
sures necessary for securing its practical adjust-
ment, and of adopting some guiding principle on
which the Assembly should proceed in the
exercise of its own constituent powers.

Although but little progress has yet been made
towards the accomplishment of these important
objects, I cannot bring the business of the As-
sembly to a close without congratulating you on
the amount of useful legislation you have ac-
complished during the brief period which has
elapsed since the commencement of the present
Session.

Of the various measures which have been pre-
sented for my acceptance, there is not one to
which I have thought it my duty to refuse my
assent, and with the exception of the Appro-
priation Bill, I have been able to give to all the
measures you have passed, an unqualified ap-
proval.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,-

It is provided by the Constitution Act, as you
are aware, that it shall be competent for the Go-
vernor before declaring his pleasure in regard
to any Bill presented for his assent, to make such
amendments in it as he may think expedient, and
to return it with such amendments for the
further consideration of the House. I have to
express my regret that the lateness of the period
at which it has been presented for my assent has
virtually precluded me from exercising that
power with respect to the Bill for appropriating
the Public Revenues.

With an explanation before you of the reasons
for which provision was recommended to be made
for the services which I find have been left un-
provided for by that Bill, I can entertain no doubt
that, with respect to some of them at least, you
would, on reconsideration, have recognized the ne-
cessity which exists for their continued mainte-
nance.

Without expressing any opinion as to the policy
of transferring certain of the Public Departments
from the control of the General Government to
that of the Provincial authorities, an object sought
to be accomplished by the Bill, I cannot refrain
from expressing my conviction that a measure in-
volving so important a question as the apportion-
ment of Legislative and Executive power between
the General Government and the subordinate lo-
cal authorities ought rather to be determined by a
Permanent enactment, to which, after full discus-