Numb. 43.

321

THE
NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
Published by Authority.

WELLINGTON, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1865.

Warrant appointing Polling Places.
By His Excellency Sir GEORGE GREY, Knight
Commander of the Most Honorable Order
of the Bath, Governor and Commander-
in-Chief in and over Her Majesty's Colony
of New Zealand and its Dependencies,
and Vice-Admiral of the same, &c., &c., &c.

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,
GREETING:-

WHEREAS by an Act of the General Assembly
intituled "The Regulation of Elections Act,
1858," it is enacted that it shall be lawful for the
Governor, by warrant under his hand, from time to
time, to appoint polling places for each electoral
district within or without the limits thereof, and to
appoint any one of such places to be the principal
polling place for the district, and all or any of such
polling places at any time to abolish, and to appoint
other polling places in lieu thereof. And whereas
by another Act of the General Assembly, intituled
"The Provincial Elections Act, 1858," it is enacted
that, subject to certain provisions therein contained,
every election of the Superintendent or of a Member
of the Provincial Council of a Province shall be con-
ducted in the manner prescribed by "The Regulation
of Elections Act, 1858," aforesaid, and all the
provisions of the said last-mentioned Act shall apply
to the elections of Superintendents and Members of
Provincial Councils:

Now know ye, that I, Sir George Grey, the
Governor of the said Colony, in pursuance of the
power and authority in me vested by the said Acts,
do hereby appoint the following places to be polling
places for the district of the Northern Division for
the election of Members of the Provincial Council of
the Province of Auckland, namely-

NORTHERN DIVISION.--Mr. Keogh's house, Pitoitoi;
Riverhead, Court House, Helensville.

Given under my hand, at the Government
House, at Wellington, this twenty-fifth
day of October, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-
five.

G. GREY.

By His Excellency's command,
E. W. STAFFORD.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 26th October, 1865.

THE following Despatch from the Secretary of
State, and Acts of the Imperial Parliament, caps.
63 and 64, are published for general information.

E. W. STAFFORD.

Downing Street, 26th July, 1865.

SIR,-I enclose, for your information, copies of
three Acts which have been passed during the recent
session of Parliament.

The first of these Acts, cap. 63, was passed to set
at rest certain questions which have been raised in
the Supreme Court of South Australia respecting the
validity of Colonial laws.

It is intended as far as possible to obviate doubt
and litigation on this most important subject, by
declaring that no Colonial law shall be void for
repugnancy to the law of England, unless it is incon-
sistent with an Imperial Act intended by Parliament
to extend to the Colony in which such law is passed,
nor because it is at variance with the Governor's
instructions.
It also establishes the power of
Colonial Legislatures to regulate the administration
of Justice, on which doubts had been thrown, and the
power of every Representative Legislature to alter
own Constitution.

The second Act, cap. 64, is passed to obviate a
doubt which has been suggested respecting the effect
of a Colonial law passed to give retrospective validity
to Marriages already informally solemnized in the
Colony. It is doubtless true that every Colonial
Legislature may prescribe the formalities requisite
to constitute a valid Marriage within its jurisdiction,
and that the formalities thus prescribed will be
recognized elsewhere as sufficient for their purpose.

But the case is different when a law is passed not to
declare what shall be a valid contract in future, but
to make valid ab initio that which was really invalid.
It has been urged that such a retrospective law,
though binding with respect to civil rights and
property within the Colony in which it is passed,
may not be held to have the same effect with respect
to rights or property which are exercisable or situate
in other parts of Her Majesty's dominions.

The first clause of this Act declares explicitly that
these retrospective enactments shall have their