closed the valves in the water-tight bulkheads, and sounded each compartment. Depth of water alongside, 9 fathoms; tide, three-quarters ebb; ship's draught forward, 11ft. 3 in.; aft, 12ft. 6in.; compass bearing, taken immediately after striking north-eastern extreme of Ahuriri Bluff, west; Cape Kidnappers, S.E., having no deviation with the ship heading S.E. by E. I can confidently state the bearings to be correct.

8.30 a.m. Finding the ship making no water, proceeded at half speed; hand lead kept constantly going, and pump wells sounded half-hourly.

By order of the Board,

CHAS. SHARP.

Chief Marine Board Office,
Wellington, 13th August, 1863.

(From New Zealand Gazette, September 3, 1863.)

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, August 29th, 1863.

HIS Excellency the Governor directs the publication of the following Act passed by the Imperial Parliament, entitled "An Act to alter the Boundaries of New Zealand."

ALFRED DOMETT.

An Act to alter the Boundaries of New Zealand.

WHEREAS by the Eightieth Section of an Act of the Fifteenth Year of Her Majesty, chapter seventy-two, intituled An Act to grant a Representative Constitution to the Colony of New Zealand, it was provided that for the purposes of that Act, the said Colony should be held to include the territories therein mentioned: And whereas it is expedient to alter the limits of the said Colony as declared by the said Act: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most excellent 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. So much of the Eightieth Section of the aforesaid Act of Parliament as declares the limits of the Colony of New Zealand for the purposes of the said Act is repealed.

2. The Colony of New Zealand shall, for the purposes of the said Act, and for all other purposes whatever, be deemed to comprise all Territories, Islands, and Countries lying between the one hundred and sixty-second degree of east longitude, and the one hundred and seventy-third degree of west longitude; and between the thirty-third and fifty-third parallels of south latitude.

LIGHTNING ROCKS.

THE accompanying Notice to Mariners, respecting temporary buoys marking the position of the Lightning Rocks, is published for general information.

JAS. G. FRANCIS,

Commissioner of Trade and Customs.

Department of Trade and Customs,
Melbourne, 27th August 1863.

NOTICE TO MARINERS.

TEMPORARY BUOYS ON THE LIGHTNING ROCKS.

Masters of vessels navigating between Port Phillip Heads are hereby cautioned to avoid four small temporary spar buoys, colored red, which have been placed round and close to the Lightning Rocks.

As these buoys are very liable to be washed away, and are placed there for a special purpose, mariners must not trust to them in any way to mark the position of these rocks, but, as hitherto, use the shore marks for that purpose on Point Lonsdale and Shortland's Bluff, as published in the Gazette, dated 22nd December 1862.

CHARLES FERGUSON,

Chief Harbour Master.

Department of Ports and Harbours,
Williamstown, 26th August, 1863.

Printed for the Provincial Government by DANIEL CAMPBELL, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.