PERMISSIVE ABOLITION.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXII, Issue 5288, 23 September 1876, Page 5

PERMISSIVE ABOLITION.

The follow ing was published in a Provincial Oourntiirnt Oa-'tle issued yesterday : — Suppiintendent's Office, Auckland, 21ft September, 1870. The following bill, introduud into the General Assembly of Nevr Zealand, U published, by dnection of his Honor the Superintendent for geneial information. — VlNce.vt E. Ricf, for the Provincial Secrettry.

A Rill intituled an Act to make Provincial Abolition permissive in each province. Whet eas an Act of the Imperial Parliament pissed in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of her Most Gracious Majesty, chapter 72, did create and establish within the colony of New Zealand a General Assembly and Pro'dncial Legislatures, the latter consisting of a Superintendent and Provincial Council : And whereas the Queen, Loids, and Commons of Grtat Britain did by + ho said Act confer upon the Provincial Legislature-, power to make and ordain all such laws, and oidinances as might be required for the peice, ot der, and good government of each Pi ovince, with the exception of laws on a few specified subjects of general and Imperial interest : And whereas her Majesty did furthei waivp her prerogative, and grant to her subjects in New Zealand the great and unusual privilege that all laws passed by the Piovincial Legislatures should tak« effect and remain in opeiation without her Majesty's assent to the same being sought for or obtained, no that their legislation on all subjects not of general or Imperial interest wai freed from all exterior interfeience, and rested solely with the inhabitants of New Zealand : And whereat from time immemorial it has been the usage of the Empire that when Legislature! are created and established, and have rights and powers of legislation conferred upon them, »uch rifkts and poweis, except in case of actual and open rebellion, aie never taken away or destroyed, except under and with the authority of Acts ]> issed by such Legislatures : And whereas the seveial ptovmccs of Xew Zealand are guiltless of offence, and it is necessaiy and desirable that this ancient and salutary bulwark of fieedom and justice should be iespected and ieveiently pieseived : Be it theiefoie enacted by the General Assembly of New Zealand in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows :— (1.) The short title of this Act shall be The Piovincwl Abolition Pei missive Act, ]87<». (2.) Sections twenty-five, twenty -six, twenty-seven, and twenty-eight of the Abolition of Provinces Act, 1875, are hereby repealed. (3 ) It shall be lawful for the Superintendent, by Pioclamation or otherwise, to dissolve the Piovincial Council whenever he shall deem it expedient so to do. (4.) The Abolition of Piovinces Act, 1875, shall come into operation in each province from and after a day t» be named in any Act or Ordinance for that puipose passed by the Provincial Council of sucli pi ovince. (">.) No law or ordinance of the General Assembly of New Zealand made after the pissing of this Act shall have any force or effect in any province of New Zealand, except such laws oi oidinances as relate to any of the put poses named in the nineteenth section of toe New Zeiland Constitution Act, fifteenth and sixteenth Victorii, chapter seventy-two. (6.) The amount to be annually contributed by eacb Province as its share of the interest payable on the Colonial debt shall be fixed by Act of the General Assembly : Provided always thas until such Act is passed, the interest on the existing Colonial debt, which amounts to eight hundred and fifteen thousand pounds, shall be charged as follows -that is to say, a sum not exceeding one hundied and ninety thousand pounds shall be charged against the North Island, and the balance against the South Island, each province or proiinchl district contributing in proportion to its levenue, oidinary and territorial.