New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, June 7, 1848.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 298, 7 June 1848, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, June 7, 1848.

We this day publish the draught of the Bill, recently introduced into the House of Commons, to suspend the operation of the New Constitution granted to New Zealand. This Act suspends, for five years, that part of the Letters Patent and Royal Instructions which relates to [the constitution and establishment of Provincial Assemblies, and the establishment of a General Assembly, and revives so much of the previous Act and original Charter of the colony, relating to the constitution of the Legislative Council, as is sufficient to re-establish that body. The Act also empowers the Governor-in-Chief to add to the members of, the Legislative Council, by appointing- such persons -' as be may think proper to be personally, or by virtue of their office, members of the Legislative Council. The fourth clause authorises the Governor and Council to constitute, by Ordinance, for each or either of the Provinces into which New Zealand,; is divided, a Provincial Legislative Council ; and to regulate the manner of their appointment or election, and prescribe the powers and authority with which they shall be intrusted. The fifth clause enables the Go-vernor-in-Chief to alter and regulate the qualifications of the Burgesses in the Municipal districts. Judging from the debate which took place on going into committee, some time may be expected to elapse before the bill makes its way through the House of Commons, and its progress through the House of Lords will be sure to provoke further discussion, so that three months may yet elapse before the Act, as passed into law, reaches the colony, and as some further time will be consumed in arrangements for calling the Legislative Council together, it is probable that the Session of the Legislative Council will not be held until near the end of the present year. . . -.••<.:. The Act, it will be observed, only suspends the operation of that part of the New Constitution relating to the Provincial and General Assemblies ; the Municipal Corporations remain untouched by its provisions, except as to the qualification of burgesses, which the Governor-in-Chief has the power to regulate by an Ordinance of the Legislative Council.

The last intelligence received in this place from Auckland has heen from Nelson, byway of Manukau, and also, as usual, by way of Sydney. It is nearly two months since there has been any direct communication from Auckland, although in that interval several vessels have left this port for Auckland. This is only another of the instances that continually occur to show the little intercourse existing between Auckland aad the Southern Settlements of New Zealand, and its inconvenient position as the seat of legislation.

On Monday morning a flock- of about thir-ty-five sheep belonging to Messrs. Rhodes and Co., and Mr. P. M. Hervey were worried by dogs at Te Aro and the greater part of them destroyed. They were all fat sheep, which had been brought in to be killed for sale, and were shut up the previous night in Mr. Suisted's wood yard for greater security ; on Monday morning between six and seven o'clock when the men in -Messrs, Rhodes's employ went "to "look after the sheep they found twenty-one of them in the yard dead, and nine others so severely bitten that there was very little chance of their recovering from the injuries they had receied. The fence of the wood yard is continued down to the water's edge, and some large dogs had taken to the water, and getting into the enclosure, had worried the sheep which were unable to escape from them.

Government Notices. — The following notices appear in the Government , Gazette published on the 30th ult. — An ordinance for the naturalization of certain persons in the colony of New Zealand, passed last session, has been confirmed by royal authority. The ordinance for regulating the slaughtering of cattle is proclaimed to come into operation after the Ist July, 1848, in the towns of Wellington, Nelson, Petre, and Dunedin (Otakou). Two public pounds have been erected at Nelson, one in the. town, arid the other in the district of the Waimea East, and a schedule oi? rates, for Wellington and Nel-

son, for cattle trespassing, as agreed to at special meetings of the Magistrates of Wellington and Nelson respectively, have been confirmed by his Excellency, but no pound has yet been erected in the district of Wellington. Tenders are advertized for the necessary timber and materials, and artificers' work required in the erection of a Native Hospital at Wanganui. A schedule of Intestate Estates from July 1843, to October 1847, has also been published by the Deputy Registrar.