A.-6

26

By the 4th section of the Act of 1855 it is enacted that— The Legislative Council or House of Representatives of New Zealand respectively shall hold, enjoy, and exercise such and the like privileges, immunities, and powers as, on the Ist January, 1865, were held, enjoyed, and exercised by the Commons House of Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, and by the Committees and members thereof, so far as the same are not inconsistent with or repugnant to such and so many of the sections and provisions of the Constitution Act as at the time of the coming into operation of this Act are unrepealed, whether such privileges, immunities, or powers were so held, possessed, or enjoyed by custom, statute, or otherwise; and such privileges, immunities, and powers shall be deemed to be and shall be part of the general and public law of the colony ; and it shall not be necessary to plead the same, and the samo shall in all Courts, and by and before all Judges, he judicially taken notice of. The only unrepealed clause in the Constitution Act which touches this question is the 54th, by which it is enacted that it shall not be lawful for the House of Eepresentatives or the Legislative Council to pass, or for the Governor to assent to, any Bill appropriating to the public service any sum of money from or out of Her Majesty's revenue within New Zealand, un'"ss the Coventor, on Pier Majesty's behalf, shall first have recommended to the House of Eepresentatives to make provision for the specific public service towards which such money is to be appropriated." The opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown in England is requested upon the following points : — 1. Whether, independently of "The Parliamentary Privileges Act, 1865," the Legislative Council was constitutionally justified in amending "The Payments to Provinces Bill, 1871," by striking out the disputed clause (clause 28) ? 2. Whether " The Parliamentary Privileges Act, 1865," confers on it any larger powers in this respect than it would otherwise have possessed ? 8. Whether the claims asserted by the House of Eepresentatives in their messages to the Legislative Council are well grounded, or what are the proper limitations thereof? Henby Sewell. W. B. D. Mantell. F. D. Bell. A. de B. Brandon.

Reasons submitted by the Managers for the Legislative Council in support of the View of the Legislative Council. A question has arisen between the Legislative Council and the House of Eepresentatives of New Zealand, upon which .the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown in England is sought to be obtained. The Legislative Council amended a Bill by striking out a clause. The House of Eepresentatives insisted that the Bill was of that class in which the Legislative Council is, by constitutional usage, debarred from making amendments. The facts of the case are as follows: — Under various Acts for regulating the public revenues of New Zealand, certain principal branches of revenue —namely, the duties of Customs, Post Office, stamps, &c.—are thrown together, and form the consolidated revenue of the colony, out of which the annual supplies for the public service are appropriated. By " The Payments to Provinces Act, 1870" (of which a copy is herewith), certain capitation allowances, determined according to the population of each province, were made payable to the respective provinces of New Zealand out of the consolidated revenue for a period of seven years, the amount payable to each province being fixed on a gradually descending scale, varying in amount according to the population in the respective provinces

each year. In the c nrrent year the rate per head of the population payable under such Act would have been £1 18s. In the same Act was also contained a provision that, in every year during the same period of seven years, a sum of £50,000 should be paid out of the consolidated revenue to the provinces, in the ratio of their respective population, for distribution amongst the various Eoad Boards within such provinces, according to a scale fixed by the Act. In the same session (1870) another Act was passed, intituled "The Immigration and Public Works Act, 1870 " (a copy of which is herewith), whereby provision was made for various objects— namely, the construction of railways, immigration, the construction of water-races on goldfields, the purchase of lands from the Natives, the extension of telegraphs, the formation of roads in the North Island. And by another Act of the same session (1870), intituled " The Immigration and Public Works Loan Act, 1870 " (a copy of which is herewith), authority was given to the Governor to raise by loan four million pounds (£4,000,000), to be applied in the way prescribed by the schedule to the Act— namely, — £ ForEailways ... ... ... 2,000,000 Immigration ... ... 1,000,000 Construction of roads in North Island ... ... ... 400,000 Waterworks on goldfields ... 300,000 Purchase of land in North Island .. ... ... 200,000 Extension of telegraph ... 60,000 Unapportioned ... ... 40,000 £4,000,000 This amount was authorized to be raised by issue of debentures —the interest and sinking fund not to exceed 6 per cent. —and the same were to be a charge upon the consolidated revenue. The 14th section provided that "the moneys raised under the authority thereinbefore contained should and might, subject to the provisions thereinafter contained, and to the provisions contained in 'The Immigration and Public Works Act, 1870,' be issued and applied to the purposes mentioned in the Act, and no other ; and, as to purposes mentioned in the said schedule, should be issued and applied in sums not exceeding the amounts in the said Schedule respectively provided." It was further provided by the 19th section that, in the event of the Imperial Parliament passing an Act to guarantee any loan raised by the Colony of New Zealand for all or any of the purposes for which the loan thereby authorized might be applied, the Governor, or any such Agents as might be appointed under the Act, might raise any portion of the loan, with such guarantee, upon and subject to all or any of the terms, conditions, and stipulations expressed in such Act of the Imperial Parliament ; and the Governor or such Agents as aforesaid was further empowered to enter into any such contract or arrangement as he might think fit with the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury in England, with regard to any portion of the loan, and the guarantee thereof ; and in and by any such arrangement or contract the Governor or such Agent as aforesaid might fix the order of priority of charge on the Consolidated Pund of New Zealand which the loan so guaranteed, or any part or parts thereof, should take with relation to any other part or parts of the loan; and in and by such arrangement might provide for the transmission to