Our Colony of New Zealandeans, with its members and appurtenances, or in his absence to Our Lieutenant-Governor or the Officer Administering the Government of Our said Colony for the time being. Given at Our Court at Windsor, this Fourteenth day of November, 1857, in the Twenty-first year of Our Reign.

Whereas We did by Our Commission under the Great Seal of Our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster the Ninth day of February, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Our Reign, constitute and appoint you to be Our Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over Our said Colony of New Zealand with all its Members and appurtenances wheresoever during Our Will and pleasure and did thereby require and command you to do and execute all things in due manner that should belong to the trust We have reposed in you in pursuance of an Act passed in the Session holden in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth years of Our Reign intituled "An Act to grant a Representative Constitution to the Colony of New Zealand" and according to the several powers and directions granted or appointed you by Our said Commission and the Instructions and Authorities therewith given you, or by such further powers and authorities as should at any time thereafter be granted or appointed you under Our Sign Manual and Signet or by Our Order in Our Privy Council or by Us through one of Our Principal Secretaries of State and according to such reasonable laws as were then in force in Our said Colony or thereafter should be made by the General Assembly of Our said Colony.

And whereas it was amongst other things by the said recited Act provided that at any time during the continuance of any Office of any Superintendent of a Province, it should be lawful for Her Majesty to remove him from such Office, on receiving an Address signed by the Members of the Provincial Council of such Province, praying for such removal.

And whereas it was by the said Act further enacted that it should be lawful for Her Majesty, in and by any Letters Patent to be issued under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, from time to time, to constitute and establish within any District or Districts of New Zealand one or more Municipal Corporation or Corporations and to grant to any such Corporation all or any of the powers which, in pursuance of the Statutes in that behalf made and provided, it is competent to Her Majesty to grant to the inhabitants of any Town or borough in England and Wales incorporated, rated in virtue of such Statutes or any of them, and to qualify and restrict the exercise of any such powers in such and the same manner as by the Statutes aforesaid or any of them, Her Majesty may qualify or restrict the exercise of any such powers as aforesaid in England: Provided always, that all provisions of any such Letters Patent, and all Bye-laws or Regulations made by any such Corporation, should be subject to alteration or repeal by any Ordinance or Act of the Provincial Council for the Province in which any such Corporation may be established, or of the General Assembly, according to their respective powers hereinafter declared.

And whereas it was by the said Act further enacted, that whereas it might be expedient that the Laws, Customs, and Usages, of the Aboriginal or Native Inhabitants of New Zealand, so far as they are not repugnant to the general principles of humanity, should for the present be maintained for the government of themselves, in all their relations to and dealings with each other, and that particular Districts should be set apart within which such Laws, Customs, or Usages, should be so observed; it should be lawful for Her Majesty by any Letters Patent to be issued under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, from time to time to make provision for the purposes aforesaid, any recital of any such Laws, Customs, or Usages, to the Law of England, or to any Law, Statute, or Usage, in force in New Zealand, or in any part thereof, in anywise notwithstanding.

And whereas it was by the said Act further enacted that it should be lawful for Her Majesty by any such Letters Patent as therein mentioned, or Instructions under Her Majesty's Sign Manual and Signet, or signified through one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State to direct to the Governor any of the powers therewith before reserved to Her Majesty, respecting (amongst other things) the removal of Superintendents of Provinces, the establishing of Municipal Corporations, and the preservation of Aboriginal Laws, Customs, and Usages.

And whereas it was by the said Act further provided that it should not be lawful for any person other than Her Majesty, her heirs or successors, to purchase or in any wise acquire or accept from the Aboriginal Natives, land of or belonging to or used or occupied by them in common as Tribes or Communities, or to accept any release or extinguishment of the rights of such Aboriginal Natives in any such land as aforesaid; and that no conveyance or transfer, or agreement for the conveyance or transfer of any such land, either in perpetuity or for any term or period, either absolutely or conditionally, and either in property or by way