182
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
Act, Her Majesty has been graciously pleased
to leave the same to their operation.

HENRY JOHN TANCRED,
For the Colonial Secretary.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, 27th July, 1859.

THE following Act passed by the General
Assembly of New Zealand, in the Ses-
sion held in the twenty-first and twenty-second
years of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen
Victoria, intituled—

No. 80—An Act to enable the Native Tribes
of New Zealand to have their Territorial
Rights ascertained, and to authorize the issue
in certain cases of Crown Grants to Natives,
which Act was reserved for the signification of
Her Majesty's pleasure thereon, having been
laid before the Queen in conformity with the
provisions of the Constitution Act, Her Majesty
has been pleased to withhold Her assent to
the same.

HENRY JOHN TANCRED,
(For the Colonial Secretary.)

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, July 31, 1859.

HIS Excellency the Governor directs the
publication of the following Despatch
from Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of
State for the Colonies for general information.
H. J. TANCRED,
For the Colonial Secretary.

Downing-street,
18th May, 1859.

SIR,—I have received your Despatches
named in the margin, which transmit for the
consideration of Her Majesty the following
Acts, passed by the Legislature of New Zea
land:-

No. 41-"An Act to regulate the Local
Affairs of Native Districts."
No. 42-"An Act to make better provision
for the Administration of Justice in Native
Districts."
No. 79-"An Act to enable the Governor
to establish a Settlement for Colonization in
the Bay of Islands."
No. 80-"An Act to enable the Native
Tribes in New Zealand to have their Terri-
torial Rights ascertained, and to authorise the
issue, in certain cases, of Crown Grants to the
Natives."

I wish, in the first place, to acknowledge
the care, ability, and sound judgment with
which these Bills appear in most respects to
have been adapted to the character and cir-
cumstances of the Native Tribes; and if I am
unable in some respects to give effect to the
policy of your advisers, I wish them to believe
that this does not arise from any want of re-
liance on their desire to advance the well-being
of the Natives, nor of their capacity to deal
with the important and delicate questions on
which that well-being depends, but from my
conviction that circumstances do not yet justifiy

the Imperial Government in abdicating the
responsibilities which at present rest on it with
regard to that remarkable race.

The Act No. 41 appears to me on the whole
wisely framed and to bear great promise of
usefulness. The second clause however is open
to an objection on the grounds which I have
already indicated. It not only invests the
Governor in Council with the virtual power of
making laws affecting in many most important
respects the rights and habits of the Natives,
(a power which I readily concede on the un-
derstanding that the Governor will exercise a
personal discretion in consenting to them) but
it omits to secure to the Crown its customary
right of disallowance. If however that right
is indispensible with regard to laws which are
passed by the Representatives of the colonists
for the furtherance and protection of their own
interests, much more is it necessary in regard.
to regulations enacted by the Governor and
Council for people whom they cannot in any
sense be said to represent. I have felt much
doubt whether I could properly advise Her
Majesty to leave to its operation a law which
was open to so important an objection. But
believing that the Act is on the whole in the
direction of a wise and useful legislation and
that the Legislature of New Zealand will see
the justice of the view which I have stated
upon this single point of objection, I have been
reluctant, by a disallowance in toto of the Act,
to entail the public inconvenience which might
occur, and the long delay which must neces-
sarily elapse, before legislative provision could
be again made to meet the objects in view.
I have therefore laid the Act before Her
Majesty, who has been pleased to leave it to its
operation. Unless, however, the Legislature
should consent to amend it by enacting that all
regulations made in pursuance of the second
clause shall be subject to disallowance by Her
Majesty, it may be necessary to consider
under what conditions your assent could be
properly given to them, and it may be neces-
sary to require, previous to such consent, that
any rules which could by possibility give occa-
sion for dispute or discontent among the
Natives should contain a proviso either sus-
pending their operation till the consent of the
Home Government is obtained, or (which
would probably be more convenient) expressly
empowering the Crown to disallow them.
To the Acts numbered 42 and 79, I see no
objection. The former has therefore been left
to its operation by Her Majesty, and the latter
(which is reserved for the signification of Her
Majesty's pleasure) will be confirmed by order
in Council.

I much regret that I have not been
able to advise the same course respecting the
Act No. 80, which appears to me open to
to various important objections. In the first
place the proposed issue of Certificates of
Native Title under the express authority of the
Colonial Government involves important ques-
tions which are not adverted to in your Des-
patch. It is no doubt most desirable that the