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tion of my seat in the Provincial Council for
the District of the Suburbs of Auckland.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
DAVID GRAHAM.

The Honbl.
the Colonial Secretary.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, 18th July, 1857.
SIR, I am directed by the Colonial Secre-
tary to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
of the 16th instant, informing him that you
had transmitted to His Honor the Superinten-
dent the resignation of your seat in the
Auckland Provincial Council.
I have, &c.,
(Signed) W. GISBORNE.
Under Secretary.

David Graham, Esq.,
&c., &c., &c.

Auckland, 17th July, 1857.
SIR, We have the honor to acknowledge
receipt of your letter of yesterday's date, in
reply to our request that the dissolution should
be postponed until sufficient time should have
been allowed for the receipt of signatures of
Justices and Members of Council residing at a
distance from Auckland, to a petition of which
you have been made aware.

You inform us that you are "not aware of
any circumstances which would justify the
delay of a dissolution of the Auckland Pro-
vincial Council beyond the time indicated in
the letter of the Colonial Secretary to his
Honor the Superintendent, dated the 25th
ultimo"; but that "if the Petition be received
by the Government in time, it shall receive
that attention which the importance of the
subject demands."

In order to ensure the receipt of the petition
in time, and in order that the substance of the
petition should be brought officially under your
notice, we immediately forward the petition,
with such signatures only attached as have
been readily obtainable in the town of Auck-
land.

The Honorable
We have, &c.,
HUGH CARLETON, M.P.C.
THOS. HENDERSON.
the Colonial Secretary.

(ENCLOSURE.)

TO HIS EXCELLENCY COLONEL THOMAS
GORE BROWNE, GOVERNOR OF THE
COLONY OF NEW ZEALAND.

The humble petition of the undersigned
members of the Provincial Council and Jus-
tices of the Peace
Humbly sheweth,

That the names of a large number of persons
not qualified to vote have been placed on the
Electoral Roll for the Province of Auckland.

That owing to a difficulty, the Court ap-
pointed to revise the Roll have not removed
these names.

That with the present Roll and under the
present regulations there could be no certainty
that any person returned had been elected by the
suffrages of the real constituency.

That there can be little hope of doing away
with the excessive party feeling and political
turmoil with which this province has been so
long afflicted, until a provincial legislature shall
have been elected, indisputably by the suffrages
of the real constituency.

That there is every likelihood that parties
will unite in giving and independent sup-
port to any Superintendent so elected.

That under the present regulations it is im-
possible to form a Roll containing only the names
of persons legally qualified to exercise the fran-
chise.

That your Petitioners are informed that your
Responsible Ministry intend to introduce a Bill
amending the Electoral Regulations and, Roll,
at the next Session of the Assembly.

That to give practical effect to such a Bill,
in regard to the Province of Auckland, a Pro-
vincial Dissolution would be required, after the
Bill shall become law.

That upon the foregoing assumption, an im-
mediate dissolution would cause two appeals to
the country in a short space of time.

That the undersigned members of the Coun-
cil are disposed to give every reasonable facility
in their power towards carrying on the Pro-
vincial Government meanwhile.

That your Petitioners would respectfully re-
present to your Excellency, that when on a for-
mer occasion, a Superintendent of this Pro-
vince requested a dissolution, a dissolution was
not granted by the Governor until the Provin-
cial Council had made it also their own request.

That your Petitioners are aware of your
Excellency's expressed intention to dissolve at
an earlier period; but would respectfully re-
present to your Excellency that the circumstan-
ces under which such intention was announced
are changed, a new and unexpected contin-
gency having arisen. For it was then supposed
that the Electoral Roll for the present year
would be cleared by the Bench of Magistrates;
but it now appears that such clearance cannot
take place until the approaching meeting of the
Assembly...

That your Petitioners are strongly impressed
with the idea that it is in your Excellency's
power to restore to the Province of Auckland
that harmonious action of which it has been so
long deprived, by not carrying your expressed
intention of dissolving into immediate effect,
but by postponing the dissolution until the fore-
mentioned Bill shall have been considered by
the Assembly.

Your Petitioners therefore pray that your
Excellency will dissolve the Provincial Legis-
lature so soon as the Electoral Roll and Regu-
lations shall have been amended, and not till
then.

And your Petitioners shall ever pray.

T. H. BARTLEY,
JOSEPH MAY,
THOS. HENDERSON,
J. A. GILFILLAN.