KAIAPOI.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 182, 1 July 1854, Page 7

KAIAPOI.

The inhabitants of the district north of the Waimakariri, feeling great inconvenience from the want of a postal communication between that district and Christchurch, a public meeting was convened at Mr. Sidey's store, Kaiapoi, on the evening of Thursday the 22nd inst., to consider the best means of procuring a delivery of letters twice a week. Owing to the shortness of the notice,several gentlemen were unavoidably absent, notwithstanding which, at the appointed hour, there was a large and highly respectable assemblage, forcibly showing the surprising increase of inhabitants within the last twelve months. Mr. H. J. Porter having been called to the chair, said it gave him great pleasure to have his name connected with the rapidly increasing town of Kaiapoi, indeed before he came there he had no idea of the immense capabilities of the locality nor of the great advancement it had made. In fact, he scarcely knew whether to te more surprised at the advantages themselves, or at their having been so long overlooked and neglected for places of much inferior capacity. Dr. Beswick then addressed the meeting. He said, that all there must constantly suffer great inconvenience from the absence of any postal regulations ; letters on most important business might lie in the Post-office at Christchurch some weeks before they arrived at their destination, and the uncertainty of delivery was so great that gentlemen frequently preferred, or were in fact compelled to be their own postmen. He therefore moved that, " It is the opinion of this meeting that for the social comfort of the inhabitants, and the commercial advancement of the district, it is necessary that a post-office be established at Kaiapoi." Mr. Black seconded tbe motion which was carried unanimously. Mr. C. Rudston Reid alluded to the great obstruction to business arising from the imperfect communication with Christchurch, and moved that " A memorial from the inhabitants be forwarded immediately to the PostmasterGeneral through the Provincial Government, requesting him to take into consideration the necessity for a postal communication between Christchurch "and Kaiapoi twice every week, and to give the necessary instructions for carrying out the measure." Mr. W. C. Beswick seconded the motion. Carried. Mr. Geo. W. Hall said, that as the postal communication to Kaiapoi would evidently occasion an increase of outlay, in order therefore to shew that the inhabitants of this district were anxious to contribute in some way towards defraying tbe expense incurred for their accommodation ; it would be desirable that a small extra postage be paid on letters forwarded from, or received at this place ; for this purpose he begged to move that "In order to meet a failproportion.of the expenses of this measure, we are of opinion that a charge of one penny would willingly be paid on all letters received at or despatched from the Kaiapoi post-office." Mr. Joseph Beswick seconded the motion. Carried. Mr. E. Nevell moved, and seconded by Mr. H. Wilson, that a memorial be forwarded to the Provincial Council requesting a grant in aid of the undertaking. Carried. Mr. T. Eatox, moved, seconded by Mr. W. White, " that this meeting is of opinion that Mr. Black is a fit and proper person to fill the office of Post-master, and that a recommendation to that effect be embodied in the memorial." Carried. Mr. Sidey observed that in order move effectually to carry out the beneficial objects embodied in the preceding resolutions, objects of such great importance to our young community, some gentleman should take on him the task of preparing the memorials ; he would therefore move that, " Dr. Beswick be requested to act as Hon. Secretary, and kindly undertake the drawing out the respective memorials to the Provincial Council and the Post-master-Gene-ral at Wellington, and to superintend the forwarding them each to its separate destination." Mr. 1. T. Cookson seconded the motion. Carried. After a vote of thanks to Mr. Porter, moved by Mr. G. W. Hall, aud seconded by Mr. C K. Reid for the able and effective manner in which be had filled the chair, the meeting separated.

(From the Government Gazette, March 28.) Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 25th March, 1854. HIS Excellency the Officer Administering the Government, has been pleased to direct that the following Instructions under Her Majesty's Signet, and Sign Manual which accompanied the New Zealand Constitution Act should be published for general information. By His Excellency's command, Andrew Sinclair, Colonial Secretary.

/ T s \ Instructions to our trusty and well- " beloved Sir George Grey, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, our Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Islands of New Zealand, or to our Lieutenant-Governor, or the Officer for the time being administering tbe Government of the said Islands, given at our Court at Balmo- j ral, this thirteenth day of September, 1852, in the sixteenth year of our Reign. Whereas by our Commission under the Great Seal of our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster the twenty-third day of December, one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, in the tenth year of our reign, We constituted and appointed you to be our Governor-in-Chief in and over our Islands of New Zealand, our Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over our Province of New Ulster, and our Governor aud Comman-der-in-Chief in and over our Province of New Minister, and did require and command you to do and execute all things that should belong to your said command according to, and in pursuance of, an Act made and passed in the Parliament holden in the ninth aud tenth years of our reign, intituled." An Act to make further provision for the Government of the New Zealand Islands," and according to, and in pursuance of, certain Letters Patent, which were issued by us under the Great Seal of our United Kingdom of Great Britain aud Ireland, bearing date at Westminster the twerity-third day of December, one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, in the tenth year of our reign, and according to, and in pursuance of, the instructions under our Sign Manual and Signet referred to, and accompanying the said. Letters Patent, and of such other Instructions as should at any hereafterbe granted, or appointed you under time 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 Laws as where or should be in force in our said Islands of New Zealand and in the Provinces thereof. And whereas by an Act made and passed in the Parliament holden in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of our reign, intituled " An Act to grant a Representative Constitution to New Zealand," the aforesaid recited Act of Parliament, Letters Patent and Instructions, have been repealed so far as the same are repugnant to, or would prevent or interfere with the operation of the said recited Act, made in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of our reign, or of any Letters Patent or Instructions to be issued by us under the authority or in pursuance of the said Act. And whereas by our commission under the Great seal of our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, we have constituted and appointed you to he our Governor and Com-mander-in-Chief in and over our Islands of New Zealand, and have required and commanded you to do and execute all things that shall belong to your said command, according to and in pursuance of an Act made and passed in the Parliament holden in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of our reign, and of any Letters Patent or Instructions to be issued under the authority, or in pursuance of the said Act. Now know yon, that we have revoked and determined, and by these our Instructions, under our Sign Manual and Signet being the Instructions so referred to in and accompanying our Commission to you as our Governor "and Commander-in-Chief in and over our Islands of New Zealand, do revoke and determine all those Instructions under our Sign Manual and Signet which are referred to in and accompanying our said Letters Patent of the twentythird day of December, in the tenth year of our rergn, and all additional Instructions under our Sign Manual and Si-net which have been given to you subsequently to the said date, so far only as the said Instructions and Additional Instructions are repugnant to the said Act

made in the Parliament holden in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of our reign. And whereas by our said commission we have authorised you to summon as an Executive Council such persons as should from time to time be named or designated by us, in any Instructions under our Signet and Sign Manual to j be addressed to you in that behalf. ! Now we do by these our Instructions nominate and appoint the undermentioned persons to be the Members of the Executive Council; that is to say, the Senior Military Officer for the time being in comvand of our Land Forces in our said Islands, Che Colonial Secretary of and for our said Islands, or the person for that time being lawfully acting in that capacity; the Attorney-General of and for our said Islands, acting in that capacity; the Treasurer of and for our said Islands, or the person for the time being lawfully acting in that capacity, and such other persons as you shall deem to be qualified and capable to advise you. Provided, nevertheless, that any appointment so to be made by you of any person not hereinbefore expressly designated to be an Executive Councillor shall be provisional only, and subject to be confirmed or disallowed by us. '": And we do declare our pleasure, to be that you do forthwith communicate to our said Executive Council these our instructions and likewise all such others from time to time wherein their consent and concurrence are requisite, and as you shall find convenient for our service to be imparted to them. And we do hereby, and it is our pleasure that our said Council shall not proceed to the despatch of business unless duly summoned by your authority, and unless two members at least exclusive of yourself, or, in your absence, exclusive of the member presiding, be present and assisting throughout the whole of the meetings • at which any such business shaU be despatched. And it is our will and pleasure, that you do attend and preside at the meetings of our said Executive Council, unless when prevented by some necessary and reasonable causej and that in your absence the senior member of iheCoun- . cil actually present shall preside at all such meetings, the seniority of the members of the said Council being regulated according to the order in which their respective officers are hereinafter mentioned. And we do further direct and command that a full and exact journal or minute be kept of all the deliberations, acts, proceedings, votes, and resolutions of our said Executive Council, and that at each meeting of the said Council the minutes of the last preceding meeting shall be read over, confirmed, or amended, as the case may require, before proceeding to the despatch of any other business. :! ;i And it is our further will and pleasure, and we do hereby command you that in the executiou of the several powers and authorities granted and committed to you by our said Charter- and Commission, and these oiir Instructions, or by any additional Instructions hereafter to be given "to you by us, you do in all things consult and advise with our said Executive Council, and that you do not exercise the powers and authorities aforsaid, or any of them, except by and with the concurrence and advice of our said Executive Council, save and except only in such cases as are hereafter saved and excepted; that is to say. Provided always that nothing herein contained shall extend to prevent your exercising without tbe advice and consent of our said Executive Council, the several powers and authorities or any of them which may be of so urgent and pressing a nature as notto admit of the delay unavoidably incident to the deliberation of our said j Council. It is nevertheless our pleasure that the measure adopted by you without the advice of our said Executive Council upon any such emergency shall with all convenient speed be by you brought before our said Executive Council for their revision or sanction: Provided also that nothing herein contained shall prevent your exercising the several powers and authorities aforesaid, or any of them, without the advice and concurrence'of our said Executive Council, in any case, or upon any occasion which may yet appear to you to be sufficiently important to require their assistance and advice, or which may be of such a nature that in your judgment our service might sustain material prejudice by consulting 'our said Executive [ Couucil thereupon.

And it is our further will aud pleasure, that no question shall be brought before our said Executive Council for their advice or '.decision excepting only such questions as may be proposed by you for that purpose. Provided neverI theless, and it is our will and pleasure, that if any member shall deem it expedient that any question should undergo the deliberation of the said Executive Council, and shall by applica- | tion in writing to you request and propose that such question should be so discussed, it shall be competent to any such member to enter upon the minutes of the said Executive Council such his written application to you, together with the answer which may be returned by you to the same. And it is our will, and we do further direct, that if in any case you see sufficient cause to dissent from the opinion of the major part or of the whole of our said Executive Council upon any question brought by you under their consideration, it shall be competent to you upon any such occasion to execute the powers and authorities vested in you by our Commission and these our Instructions in opposition to such their opinions, it being nevertheless our pleasure that in every case it shall be competent to any member of"our said Council to record at length, on the minutes of the said Council, the grounds and reasonsof any advice or opinion he may give upon any question brought under the consideratian of such Council; and it being also our pleasure that, in the event of your acting upon any occasion in opposition to the advice of the whole or the major part of the said Executive Council, you do by the first opportunity transmit to us, through one of our principal Secretaries of State, a full explanation of the grounds of every such measure, together with complete copies of the minutes if any of the said Executive Council relating thereto. And we do further direct that twice in each year a full transcript of all the minutes of the Executive Council of the preceding half year be transmitted to us through one of our principal Secretaries of State. And whereas by the said recited Act of Parliament, made and passed in the fifteenth and sixteenth years of our reign, it is amongst other things enacted that there' shall be within the said Colony of New Zealand a General Assembly to consist of the" Governor^ Legislative Council, and House of Representatives; and it is further enacted and provided that it shall be lawful for us, by any instrument under our Royal Sign' Manual, to authorise you in our name to summon to the said Legislative Council the number of persons therein designated, and plsd to summon such other person or persons as we shall think fit:— , Now therefore, in pursuance of the said Act and in exercise of the powers thereby vested in us, we do, by these Instructions under our Sign Manual, authorise you in our name to summon to the said Legislative Council, such persons being not more thau fifteen nor less than ten, as you shall deem to be prudent and discreet men, and likewise to authorise you to summon to the said Legislative Council such other person or "persons ai you shall deem to he prudent and discreet men, for supplying any vacancy or vacancies that may happen in the said Legislative Council or otherwise, so that the whole number of members of the said Legislative Council shall hot at any one time exceed fifteen. * '" '■ Provided, however, that no person shall be summoned by you to the said Legislative Council who shall not be of the full age of twentyone years and our natural born subject, or our subject naturalised by Act of Parliament or by an Act of the Legislature of New Zealand. V. BegSir George Grey, X.C.8., ■ Instructions. New Zealand.

• Being the following Additionallnstruetions, viz. December 22nd, 1847.—Altering amount of royalty on Minerals. March 13th, IS4B.—Alienation of land in exchange for other lands. July 14th, 1848.—Aborigines. January 27th, 1849.—Amends Instructions as to extension of Rural lots, &c. January 14th, 1850.—Confirms appointment of Legislative Councillors of New Munster. February 7th, 1850.—Lauds for Naval 'and Military v\ficers, &c. .'' i August 12th, 1850.—Application of proceeds of M?1Bales. . | August 12th, 1850.—Contracts between New Zeaiw Company and Canterbury Association, &c. March 11th, 1852.—Authorises persons temporarily • cupying Crown Lands to cut timber thereon.