292
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, 12th November, 1861.
T is hereby notified that a Writ issued for
the election of a Superintendent for the
Province of Auckland, has been returned
with a certificate to the effect that
JOHN WILLIAMSON
has been duly elected.
HENRY SEWELL.
In the absence of Mr. Fox.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, 12th November, 1861.
T is hereby notified, that a Writ issued for
the election of a Member of the Provin-
cial Council of Canterbury, for the District
of Timaru, has been returned with a certifi-
cate to the effect that
ROBERT WILKIN
has been duly elected.
HENRY SEWELL,
In the absence of Mr. Fox.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, 12th November, 1861.
T HE following Despatches from the Right
Hon. the Secretary of State for the Co-
lonies, and the Acts of the Imperial Parliament
enclosed therein respectively, are published for
general information.
HENRY SEWELL,
In the absence of Mr. Fox.

Downing Street,
10th August, 1861.
SIR,-Governor Gore Browne in his Des-
patch of the 29th November last, No. 124,
forwarded, in compliance with a resolution of
the House of Representatives, a case which
they were desirous should be submitted for the
opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown,
having reference to the legality of the "New
Zealand New Provinces Act," of 1858.

I accordingly caused the case to be referred
to the Law Officers, and I now transmit to you
for your own information, and for that of your
Responsible Advisers, a copy of a letter re-
ceived in reply, from which it will be seen that
the Law Officers were of opinion that the
General Assembly had not the power to con-
stitute new Provinces.

As the Act in question was one of much
value and importance, and as great confusion
would be caused in the Colony by impeaching
the proceedings which had taken place under
its authority, I came to the conclusion that an
Act of Parliament ought at once to be passed
to establish the validity both of the local Act
and all that had been done under it, and at the
same time, to give power to the local Legis-
lature to constitute new Provinces in future.

The Act received Her Majesty's assent on
the 11th ulto., and a copy of it is herewith
forwarded to you.

I have, &c.,
NEWCASTLE.
Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B.,
&c., &c., &c.

AN ACT to declare the validity of an Act
passed by the General Assembly of New
Zealand, intituled an Act to provide for the
Establishment of new Provinces in New
Zealand. [11th July, 1861.]

WHEREAS by an Act of the Session holden
in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Her
Majesty, intituled "An Act to grant a Repre-
sentative Constitution to the Colony of New
Zealand," it was provided that certain Pro-
vinces therein mentioned should be esta-
blished in the said Colony, and that in every
such Province there should be a Provincial
Council, and that there should be in the said
Colony a General Assembly competent to
make laws for the Peace, Order, and good
Government of the same ; and by the sixty-
ninth section of the said Act it was further
provided that it should be lawful for the said
General Assembly to constitute new Pro-
vinces in the said Colony, and to appoint the
number of Members of which the Provincial
Councils thereof should consist, and to alter
the Boundaries of any Provinces for the time
being existing, provided always that any Bill
for any of the said purposes should be re-
served for the signification of Her Majesty's
pleasure thereon : And whereas by an Act of
the Session holden in the twentieth and
twenty-first years of Her Majesty, intituled
"An Act to amend an Act for granting a
Representative Constitution to the Colony of
New Zealand," it was enacted that the sixty-
ninth section of the said first-recited Act
should be repealed, and that it should be
lawful for the said General Assembly to alter,
suspend, or repeal all or any of the provisions
of the said Act, except the third section,
and certain others therein specified: And
whereas the said General Assembly, by an
Act passed in a Session holden in the twenty-
first and twenty-second years of Her Majesty,
intituled "An Act to provide for the Esta-
blishment of new Provinces in New Zealand,"
did authorise the Governor of the said
Colony to establish such new Provinces in
manner therein mentioned, and the said
Governor did establish certain new Provinces
accordingly: And whereas doubts are enter-
tained whether it was competent to the said
General Assembly to make such provision,
and to the said Governor to establish such
new Provinces as aforesaid, and it is expe-
dient that such doubts should be set at rest:
And whereas it is also expedient that the said
General Assembly should be at liberty to
alter part of the third section of the herein-
before first-recited Act of Parliament: Be it
therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excel-
lent Majesty, by and with the advice and
consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal,
and Commons, in this present Parliament
assembled, and by the authority of the same,
as follows:-

1. It shall be lawful for the said General
   Assembly, by any Act or Acts to be by them
   from time to time passed, or for the Officer
   Administering the Government of New Zea-
   land, acting under authority of any such Act