(From New Zealand Gazette, July 11, 1863.)

A PROCLAMATION

Intimating Her Majesty’s assent to a certain Bill passed by the General Assembly.

By His Excellency Sir George Grey, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable 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.

WHEREAS by an Act passed in the Session of Parliament held in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Her Majesty’s reign, intituled “ An Act to grant a Representative Constitution to the Colony of New Zealand,” it is amongst other things enacted that no Bill which shall be reserved for the signification of Her Majesty’s pleasure thereon shall have any force or authority within the Colony of New Zealand until the Governor of the said colony shall signify, by speech or message to the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the said Colony, or by Proclamation, that such Bill has been laid before Her Majesty in Council, and that Her Majesty has been pleased to assent to the same.

And whereas a certain Bill passed by the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the said Colony, intituled “ An Act to alter the Civil List,” was presented to the Governor of the said Colony for Her Majesty’s assent, and the said Bill was reserved for the signification of Her Majesty’s pleasure thereon:

Now therefore I, the Governor of New Zealand, in pursuance of the provisions of the said in part recited Act, do, by this Proclamation, signify and proclaim to all whom it may concern that the said Bill has been laid before Her Majesty in Council, and that Her Majesty has been pleased to assent to the same.

Given under my hand at Auckland, and issued under the seal of the Colony of New Zealand, this third day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.

By His Excellency’s command,
Alfred Domett.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Auckland, 6th July, 1863.

THE following Circular Despatch from Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, respecting the distress which still prevails among the Manufacturing Population of the Northern Counties of England, is published for general information.

Alfred Domett.

Downing Street,
11th April, 1863.

SIR,—The distress which still prevails among the Manufacturing Population of the Northern Counties, and the apparent probability of its continuance, makes it necessary for Her Majesty’s Government carefully to consider the several schemes which have been proposed for rescuing the people from their present condition, and enabling them again to earn an independent livelihood. Among those schemes, as you are no doubt aware, emigration occupies a prominent place. If the people in question had been accustomed to outdoor labour, and their numbers were less excessive, there would be no room to doubt that emigration would afford to them, as it has to others, an immediate escape, and that their transfer to other portions of the Empire would be as beneficial to the Colonies as to the people themselves; but these people are differently circumstanced: a large majority of them have been accustomed to in-door work only, and would probably be incapable at first of performing any considerable amount of hard labour out of doors. Others have been employed in out-door, though not absolutely agricultural labour, and these might be expected to be at once useful; but the numbers of the whole class are so great, and comprise so large a portion of women and children, that some doubt must be felt as to the possibility of their ready absorption by the Colonies, even irrespective of their previous employments.

If, however, it should be decided to encourage or assist the Emigration of any portion of those people, it would be of great importance to Her Majesty’s Government to know accurately to which of Her Majesty’s Colonial possessions their Emigration might be directed with the best prospect of advantage to the people themselves and to the Colony. The information at present at my command does not enable me to answer this question with confidence. I think it better, therefore, to refer at once to you, and request you to furnish me with the best information in your power upon the subject. You will understand that the people are destitute, and that they must therefore earn their livelihood by working for wages, not by occupying or cultivating land on their own account.