THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 701

that after due inquiry no such record is
believed to exist; or a separate declaration
must be made to that effect.
(d.) Statutory declarations must be exactly in
the form prescribed by the Act of 5 and 6
William IV., c. 62. A printed form, if
required, will be supplied on application to
the Civil Service Commissioners.
N.B.—Clergymen, as such, are not qualified to
take declarations.

Provincial Council of Taranaki elected.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 8th December, 1873.

I T is hereby notified, that Writs issued for the elec-
tion of Members of the Provincial Council of the
Province of Taranaki have been returned with cer-
tificates to the effect that,—

For the District of the Town of New Plymouth:
Charles Douglas Whitcombe, David Callaghan,
Arthur Standish, and William Mumford
Burton, of New Plymouth, Freeholders;

For the District of Grey and Bell:
Harry Albert Atkinson of Grey, Peter Elliot of
Elliot Road, James Baxter Connett of Wai-
tara West, James Thomas Upjohn of Avenue
Road, John Andrews of Huirangi, Freeholders,
and James Ratenbury, of Waitara West,
Leaseholder;

For the District of Omata:
William Neilson Syme of Okato, William Mor-
gan Crompton of New Plymouth, and Francis
Joseph Mace of Wairau, Freeholders;

For the District of Patea:
Hector Stephen Peacock and Felix Macguire,
have been duly elected.

DANIEL POLLEN.

Registrars of Marriages, &c., appointed.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 5th December, 1873.

HIS Excellency the Governor has been pleased to
appoint the following gentlemen to be Regis-
trars of Marriages, and of Births, Deaths, and
Marriages, and also Vaccination Inspectors, for the
Districts set opposite their names, as the same are
defined in Proclamation of the 29th day of November,
and published in this Gazette:—

SEYMOUR THORNE GEORGE, Esq.,—Kawau.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, Esq.,—Mahurangi.

DANIEL POLLEN.

Acting Consul recognized.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 9th December, 1873.

I T is hereby notified, that the Hawaiian Consul at
Auckland has appointed

Mr. DAVID BOOSIE CRUICKSHANK

to be the Acting Hawaiian Consul at that place
during his absence, and His Excellency the Governor
directs such appointment to be recognized pro-
visionally.

DANIEL POLLEN.

Despatches from the Secretary of State for the
Colonies, with Treasury Minute enclosed.

Department of Justice,
Wellington, 8th December, 1873.

T HE following Despatch, with Enclosure, from Her
Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the
Colonies, is published for general information.

JOHN BATHGATE.

[CIRCULAR.]

Downing Street, 10th September, 1873.

SIR,—I transmit for your information, and for publi-
cation in the Colony under your Government, if you
should think it desirable, a copy of a Treasury Minute
dated 24th July, 1873, as to the regulations to be
observed in future in the distribution of estates of
intestate bastards.

I have, &c.,
KIMBERLEY.

The Officer Administering
the Government of New Zealand.

Treasury Minute, dated 24th July, 1873.

THE Chancellor of the Exchequer has called the
attention of this Board to the manner in which
estates of intestate bastards are disposed of.

Mr. Lowe observes that when a legitimate person
dies intestate, the distribution of his property is
governed by the provisions laid down in the Statute
of Distributions. That Statute, in admitting the
relatives of a deceased person to a participation in
his property in proportion to their degrees of pro-
pinquity to the deceased, proceeds on the obvious
principle that the nearest relative has the strongest
claim upon him.

The Statute must no doubt frequently contravene
the real wishes of the intestate. The law which
forbids parol evidence from being given to prove the
intention of the testator, excludes very often matter
most valuable for the ascertainment of truth.

But the law, as laid down in the Statute of Distri-
butions, deliberately renounces these advantages, in
order that there may be a clear and settled principle
to go by, and that the infinite frauds and perjuries
which must arise on the admission of parol evidence
may be avoided.

It is otherwise in the case of a bastard dying in-
testate. He does not come within the provisions of
that Statute.

His property falls to the Crown, and it is only by
way of Royal bounty that the Crown, upon the advice
of the Treasury, is accustomed to make grants out of
such estates on various considerations.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer questions whether,
in dealing with these cases, it is right to set aside the
precedent of the Law of Intestacy, as he observes
has been done in certain instances, and, instead of
inquiring who would have been entitled had the
parents of the bastard been married, to substitute
an inquiry, which the law absolutely refuses to enter-
tain, as to who would or who would not have been
the legatees of the bastard if he had made a will.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is of opinion that,
after setting aside the present share of the State, the
remainder of the estate of an intestate bastard, dying
without legitimate children, should be divided as it
would have been had his father and mother been
married. In the absence of natural relations, the
whole, of course, would go to the Crown.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is aware that this
rule has been acted on generally, but exceptions have
been made heretofore in certain cases, and to these
exceptions he calls particular attention, as he cannot
but regard them as inconsistent with the policy of
the Statute of Distributions.

My Lords entirely concur with the Chancellor of
Exchequer as to the expediency of a strict observance
of the rule above adverted to, and they desire that,
in all future cases of the disposition of the estates of
intestate bastards, the rule adopted from the Statute
of Distributions shall be invariably observed.

My Lords, however, will be prepared to entertain
recommendations from the legal advisers of this
Board in matters of this description, for the allow-