ACTS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

5

A-No. 2

Ni.w Zi:ai.and. No. U>7.

No. 93 of 24 i 25 Vie.

long-standing grievances on the part of some of the Pensioners, who complain that the promises held ouAo them when they came to the Colony have not as yet been fairly fulfilled. The third Act gives the power to investigate claims under the "Auckland Immigration Certificate Act, 1858," to a Commissioner to be appointed by the Governor, instead of leaving that power in the hands of the Provincial Council of Auckland. Ministers, though not responsible for these Acts, recommend them for confirmation. " The Intestate Native Succession Jet."— This Act will explain its own object. It will be seen that very embarrassing questions arise when Natives die who have obtained Crown Grants of land. Their social condition is not such as to make it possible to apply to them the ordinary law of descent. To bring them under such a law, which they would not understand, would tend to discourage them in exchanging their present Tribal tenure "for Crown Titles. The only practicable mode of avoiding the difficulty appears to be that provided for by the Act, viz., to leave the Governor power on the death of a Native to remodel the succession and distribution of his land, so as to adapt it to Native habits and ideas. Recommended for confirmation. *" Diseased Cattle Act ."—The disease called Pleuro-Pneumonia lias broken out amongst Cattle in some of the Australian Colonies, and is making great ravages amongst the stock there. Great alarm prevails lest it should be introduced into this Colony, particularly in the Souther» Provinces. _ One of the Provincial Legislatures has already passed an Ordinance prohibiting the importation of Cattle altogether, with the view of preventing the introduction of the disease into that district. The Ordinance has been disallowed, for the reason (amongst others) that the General Assembly has passed an Act on the subject applicable to the whole Colony. The magnitude of the interests at stake justify a measure of unusual stringency. The General Assembly has passed an Act, the main features of which are to provide for a system of inspection and quarantine, and (in cases where Cattle are imported from districts notoriously infected) to prohibit importation altogether. The Act vests the powers created under it in the Governor in Council; but giyes the Governor power to delegate the same to the Superintendents of Provinces, subject to restrictions and regulations. The Governor has delegated the powers under the second, fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth, and tenth Sections to the Superintendents, and has made regulations, of which copies are transmuted with the Act The intention is to allow the Superintendents to exercise the delegated powers, as it were, provisionally; and, when the Governor shall have received from the various Provinces their respective regulations, the General Government propose to assimilate them, and to establish uniform regulations applicable throughout the Colony. Ministers confidently recommend the measure for Her Majesty s allowance. "Provincial Audit Act." —The object of this measure is to provide a system of Audit for the Provincial Governments. Recommended for confirmation. " Public Debt Apportionment Act"—lt will be remembered that the £500,000 loan was apportioned between the respective Provinces of the Colony in specific proportions. Originally the sum of £200,000 was divided amongst the three Provinces of Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago, £GC,G66 13s. 4d. being assigned to each. By a subsequent arrangement, the share of Nelson was reduced to £45,000, and the respective shares of Canterbury and Otago increased to £77,500. By the late settlement of the boundary line between Canterbury and Otago, Canterbury has lost and Otago has gained a considerable tract of country. This has occasioned a necessity for re-adjusting the shares of the debt. This Act (passed with the assent of the representatives of both Provinces) effects that object. Recommended for confirmation. _ "New Provinces Act Amendment Act" provides a few additional restrictions on the creation or new Provinces under the New Provinces Act, 1858. Recommended for confirmation. " Customs Duties Amendment Act." —Two chanaes are made by this Act in the "Customs Duties Act." Under the original Act, Naval and Military Officers were entitled to drawback on wine alone. By the present Act the system of drawback is abolished as cumbersome in practice and open to abuse; but the privilege is granted instead, to Naval and Military Officers, of taking wine, ale, beer, and spirits, out of bond without paying duty, subject to such restrictions and regulations as may be prescribed by Order in Council. Recommended for confirmatfon. 1 ' Wm. Fox. 28th September, 18€1. _______——^——

DESPATCHES FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE RELATIVE TO ACTS OF THE ASSEMBLY, 1861. No. 1. COPY OF A DESPATCH FROM MR. c. fortescue to governor sir g. GREY, K.C.B. Downing-street, c 26th November, 1861. With reference to your predecessor's Despatch, No. 119, of the 6th September, I have the honor to inform you that I have laid before the Queen the Act of the Legislature of New Zealand entitled "An Act to prevent the Importation of Diseased Cattle," and that it will be left to its °perati0n' I have, &c, Governor Sir George Grey, ' ?• F°*™^»,. &c &c gj C- In the absence of the Duke oi Newcastle. * The Memorandum on the Diseased Cattle Act was transmitted to the Governor in a separate communication on the 5 th September,