Neiv Zealand Bill.

A.—No. 9.

1

15 & 16 Vict. C. 72,

20 & 21 Vict. c. 58.

BILL INTITULED An Act respecting the Establishment and Government of Provinces in New Zealand. WMfHEREAS by an Act of the Session hoi den in the Fifteenth * * and Sixteenth Years of Her Majesty, intituled "■ An Act to grant a Representative Constitution to the Colony of New Zealand," it was provided that certain Provinces therein mentioned should be established in the said Colony, and that in every such Province there should be a Provincial Council, and that there should be in the said Colony a General Assembly competent to make Laws for the Peace, Order, and good Government of the same ; and by the Sixty-ninth Section of the said Act it was further provided, that it should be lawful for the said General Assembly to constitute new Provinces in the said Colony, and to appoint the Number of Members of which the Provincial Councils thereof should consist, and to alter the Boundaries of any Provinces for the Time being existing; provided always, that any Bill for any of the said Purposes should be reserved for the Signification of Her Majesty's pleasure thereon : And whereas by an Act of the Session holden in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Years of Her Majesty, intituled " An Act to amend an Act for granting a Representative Constitution to the Colony of New Zealand," it was enacted that the Sixty-ninth Section of the said first-recited Act should be repealed, and that it should be lawful for the said General Assembly to alter, suspend, or repeal all or any of the Provisions of the said Act, except certain Sections therein specified : And whereas the said General Assembly, by an Act passed in a Session holden in the Twenty-first and Twenty-second "Years of Her Majesty, intituled " An Act to provide for the Establishment of new Provinces in New Zealand," or more shortly, ll The New Provinces Act, 1858," did authorize the Governor of the said Colony to establish such new Provinces in manner therein mentioned, and the said Governor did establish certain new Provinces accordingly: And whereas Doubts are entertained whether it was competent to the said General Assembly to make such Provision and to the said