A—No. 13

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT, ETC.

6

for its action. Nor does the wording of Acts which may assign certain duties to be performed by the Crown, apparently unassisted in any way, contravene this axiom. In England, the Sovereign, in JN rew Zealand, the Governor, is by precise words in Acts of Parliament, specially and alone authorized to exercise certain powers, but although so specially authorized, can never —as is well understood and intended by the Legislature when passing these Acts —exercise the specified powers, except with the advice of Constitutional Ministers. You also seem to infer that if the Governor acts on the advice of Ministers some injury to the Legislature might arise from what you term their " party leanings," and you urge (apparently as a necessarily consequent protection to the Legislature) that the Governor should be bound to act on the advice of the Speaker alone in certain cases. But you appear to overlook both that Ministers are directly responsible to the Legislature for their advice, and that the Speaker, who might have partyleanings, would be for the advice he might give, altogether irresponsible either to the Crown or the Legislature, not being for the duration of each Parliament removable by either. With respect to your remark as to the customary mode of addressing the Speaker of the House of Representatives, I can only state that, as far as I am aware and can ascertain from the official records, the custom has been to conduct, through the Colonial Secretary's Office, what may properly be termed official correspondence between the Governor and the Speaker of either House of the Legislature. Certainly there is no record of a. Governor having ever personally corresponded with a Speaker in reference to issue of writs. Referring to the latter portion of your letter in which you state that " the Legislature should contain within itself every power necessary for constituting itself and preserving its action," I would observe that I do not conceive you to mean by those words that you would limit the undoubted prerogatives of the Crown of summoning and proroguing the Legislature, of calling Members to the Legislative Council, and of dissolving at its pleasure the House of [Representatives. Assuming that not to be your intention, I am glad to be able generally to concur in your opinion that the practice of issuing writs for elections should be assimilated in New Zealand to that in force in the United Kingdom, which is not the case at present; but to effect this the law must be altered. While therefore expressing my opinion as to the practice which the law at present in force in New Zealand necessitates, I in no way wish to commit myself to an approval of that law, but, on the contrary, as I have just stated, I would willingly see it changed in the direction indicated. I have, &c, The Hon. the Speaker of the House of Representatives. E. ~W. Stafford.