ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 460, 29 December 1849, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Legislation for the Colonies. — Two bills have been recently introduced into Parliament, of some importance to this colony. The first is " A bill to facilitate the Execution of Conveyances and other instruments by or on behalf of the New Zealand Company in New Zealand." The object of this bill is to enable the New Zealand Company, to appoint not less than two attornies in the colony, for' the purpose of making and 1 executing grants, lease's, conveyances, frrid all other deeds and instruments relative to the Company's lands. For this purpose a seal is to be granted to such attornies, which will render every document to which it is affixed as valid as though it bad been executed by the Company itself without the intervention of their attornies. Deeds executed tinder this seal are to be of themselves primd facie evidence of the vali. dity of the deeds and of the appointment of the attornies affixing it. The fourth clause as it now stands is very obscure, but its object is evidently to enable two attornies to act, whatever number may be appointed. The fifth clause provides that deeds executed by the Company within the United Kingdom, with relation to their lands in the colony, shall not be subject to stamp duty, and that for all purposes of registration within the colony, the seal of the Company shall be sufficient evidence of the due executiqn^of the instrument, no further verification being required. The other is a bill to " enable the Colonial Legislatures to establish inland posts," unless the Postmaster-General shall pieviously have established &>uch posts, in which case, the Bill of the Colonial Legislature must Wait her Majesty's assent. Where this is not the case, the Colonial Legislature may establish inland posts only, and in this case, the powers of the £ostm.aste,r- t General are to cease and,.deterraine, and the Colonial Bill will take effect, subject to her Majesty's approval. This Act, which is a general one, is not to affect the Act of the 9th and 10th of Victoria, " For the further provision of the Government of New Zealand," nor the Bill, at present pending in the H.>use, " For the better Goverament of her Majesty's Australian Colonies." Arrangement between the East India Company and the Railway Company. — The long pending negotiations between the East India Company and the East India Railway Company have at last been brought to a practical The Times gives the following summary of the terms of the compact under which railways in India are to be commenced — " The East India Railway Company is tostart with a capital of f,l, 000,000 sterling ; which is io be paid into the treasury of the East India Company by the following instalments. A deposit of £60,000 has already been made, which still stands io the credit of the shareholders with the East Indian Treasury ; and the expenses incurred in prosecution of ti-e undertaking, amounting up to the 28th of last March to £33,600, are also permitted to count as portion of the capital ; so that the sum remaining to be provided is only £906,400. Of this sum £106,400 is to be forthcoming within four calendar months from the date of the deed, .and the remaining amount is to be paid up in sueß portions and at such times as shall be assented to by the East India Company, after a rate of not less than £300,000 per annum. This capita! is to bear an interest of five per cent, guaranteed and payable by the East India Company ; and upon it the Railway Company is to draw, from" lime to time, for such sums as the\proper execution of their works can be duly shown to require. From these funds a railway is to be constructed under the immediate direction and control of the East India Company. It is to commence either at Calcutta or' at some spot within ten miles of that city, and is to take a direction towards the upper provinces ; the first section being so laid down that it may admit of being continued either to Rajraahal or the more distant station of Mirzapore. Over the arrangement and construction of this line the East India, Company it to exercise a supervision amounting to a virtual dictation of all the engineering and architectural conditions involved in the work ; and as the project is avowedly experimental, a power is also reserved to the Indian Government of altering at pleasure either the character or direction of the line." —Spectator, August I,