THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 293

or Acts, to constitute new Provinces in New
Zealand, and to direct and appoint the num-
ber of Members of which the Provincial
Councils of such Provinces shall consist, and
to alter the Boundaries of any Provinces for
the time being existing in New Zealand.
2. It shall be lawful for the said General
Assembly to alter, suspend, or repeal so much
of the third section of the herein-before first-
recited Act of Parliament as provides that
the Provincial Council in each of the Pro-
vinces thereby established shall consist of
such number of Members, not being less than
nine, as the Governor shall by Proclamation
appoint.
3. The herein-before recited Act passed
by the said General Assembly, and all Acts,
matters, or things done under and in pur-
suance of authority created or given or ex-
pressed to be created or given by the same
Act, shall be, and shall be deemed to have
been from the passing or doing thereof, as
valid and effectual for all purposes whatever
as such Acts, matters, or things might or
would have been if at the time of the passing
of the same Act by the said General Assembly
this Act of Parliament had been in force.
4. The provisions of the two herein-before
recited Acts of Parliament as altered by this
Act shall apply to all Provinces at any time
existing in New Zealand, in like manner and
under the same conditions as the same apply
to the Provinces established by the herein-
before first-recited Act of Parliament.

tain Rules are prescribed for determining the
Number of Passengers to be carried in Pas-
senger Ships, and the decks on which Passen-
gers may be carried: And whereas it is ex-
pedient to empower the Governor of any of
Her Majesty's Colonies in Australasia to sub-
stitute, if he shall think fit, other Rules on
these points for Vessels carrying Passengers
from any such Possession to any other of Her
Majesty's Possessions in Australasia: Be it
therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excel-
lent Majesty, by and with the advice and con-
sent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and
Commons, in this present Parliament assem-
bled, and by the authority of the same, as
follows:-

1. It shall be lawful for the Governor of
   each of Her Majesty's Colonies already or
   hereafter to be established in Australasia, by
   any Proclamation to be by him from time to
   time issued for the purpose (which Proclama-
   tion shall take effect from the issuing thereof,
   if no day shall be named therein for the pur-
   pose), to prescribe such Rules as he shall
   think proper for determining the Number of
   Passengers to be carried in any Passenger
   Ship which shall proceed from any such Colony
   to any other of Her Majesty's Possessions for
   the time being being in Australasia, and for deter-
   mining on what deck or decks, and subject to
   what reservations or conditions, Passengers may
   be carried, and also to prescribe such Penalties
   for the infraction or non-observance of such
   Rules as to such Governor may seem proper.
2. From the time when any such Proclama-
   tion shall take effect, and so long as the same
   shall continue in force, the Rules and Enact-
   ments contained in the said "Passengers Act,
   1855," relating to the Number of Passengers
   to be carried in any Passenger Ship, and the
   deck or decks whereon they are to be carried,
   shall cease to apply to any Vessel to which
   such Proclamation shall be applicable, save only
   as to the recovery and application of any
   Penalty for any offence committed against the
   said Act before such Proclamation shall take
   effect.
3. The provisions and requirements of every
   such Proclamation shall be enforced in the
   same manner, and in all Her Majesty's Do-
   minions, as if they were incorporated in the
   said Passengers Act, or in any Act of a like
   nature which may hereafter be passed by the
   Legislature of the United Kingdom, and a
   copy of any such Proclamation, purporting to
   be under the hand of the Governor of the
   Colony wherein the same may have been
   issued, and under the Public Seal of such
   Colony, shall in any part of Her Majesty's
   Dominions wherein the same shall be produced
   be received as good and sufficient evidence of
   the due issuing and of the contents of such
   Proclamation, unless it shall be proved that
   such copy is not genuine.
4. The expression "Governor," " Passenger
   Ship," "Passenger," shall in this Act have
   respectively the same signification as in the
   said "Passengers Act, 1855"; and the term

Downing-street,
August 26th, 1861.

SIR,-My attention having been called by
the Governor of Victoria to what was repre-
sented to be an inconvenient operation of the
Imperial "Passengers' Act, 1855," upon the
Steam Boats plying between that and the other
Australian Colonies, with regard to the limi-
tation which it imposed in respect of the num-
bers of passengers who could be conveyed on
board such vessels, it was determined by Her
Majesty's Government, after a full considera-
tion of the question, to introduce into Parlia-
ment a Bill to amend the Imperial Passengers'
Act in the manner suggested.

I transmit to you a copy of the Act which
has been passed to effect this object, and to
which Her Majesty's assent has been given.

Copies of the Act will be forwarded by the
present mail to the Governors of the other
Australian Colonies.

I have, &c.,
NEWCASTLE.

The Officer Administering
the Government, &c., &c.,
New Zealand.

AN Acr to empower the Governors of the
several Australian Colonies to regulate the
Number of Passengers to be carried in
Vessels plying between Ports in those Co-
lonies. [1st August, 1861.]

WHEREAS by the thirteenth and fourteenth
sections of the "Passengers Act, 1855," cer-