A.—No. la.

No. 1. Copy of a DESPATCH from His Grace the Duke of Buckingham to Governor Sir G. F. Bowen, G.C.M.G. (No. 95.) Downing Street, 13th August, 1868. (Eeceived at Wellington, 21st October, 18G8.) SIR, — (Answered, " Separate," 26th October, 1868.) With reference to previous correspondence respecting the New Zealand " County of Westland Act, 1867," and on the subject of the Bill which it was proposed to introduce into the Imperial Parliament, to remove doubts as to the validity of that Act, I have the honor to transmit to you the enclosed copies of an Act which received Her Majesty's assent on the 31st ultimo, entitled " An Act to " declare the Powers of the General Assembly of New Zealand to abolish any " Province in that Colony, or to withdraw from any such Province any part of the " Territory thereof." I have, &c, BUCKINGHAM AND CHANDOS. Governor Sir G. P. Bowen, G.C.M.G.

Enclosure in No. 1. Anno Teicesimo Peimo & Teicesimo Secundo.—VictobijE Begins. Cap. XCII. An Act to declare the Powers of the General Assembly of New Zealand to abolish any Province in that Colony, or to withdraw from any such Province any part of the Territory thereof. [31** July, 1868.] Whereas by the third section of an Act of the Session holden in the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth years of Her Majesty, intituled " An Act respecting the Establishment and Government of Provinces " in New Zealand, and to enable the Legislature of New Zealand to repeal the Seventy-third Section of "an Act, intituled 'An Act to grant a Representative Constitution to the Colony of New Zealand,'" it was provided, that it should be lawful for the General Assembly of New Zealand, by any Act or Acts to be by them from time to time passed, to establish or provide for the establishment of New Provinces in the Colony of Now Zealand, and to alter or to provide for the alteration of the boundaries of any Provinces for the time being existing in the said Colony, and to make provision for the administration of any such Provinces, and for the passing of laws for the peace, order, and good government thereof: And whereas doubts are entertained whether the said General Assembly has power under the above-recited enactments, or otherwise, to abolish any such Province now or hereafter to be established, or to withdraw from such Province any part of the territory comprised therein, except for the purpose of including the same within the limits of some other such Province, and it is expedient that such doubts should be removed: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with tho advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : 1. The General Assembly of New Zealand shall be deemed to have, and since the passing of the afore-mentioned Act to have had, the power of abolishing any Province at any time heretofore or hereafter to bo established in New Zealand, or of withdrawing therefrom the whole or any part of the territory comprised therein, and of passing laws for the peace, order, and good government of the territory so withdrawn from or ceasing to form part of the territory of any such Province, whether such territory shall or shall not be included within the limits of any other Province of New Zealand, and also the power of making from time to time such provision, as to such General Assembly shall seem expedient, relating to the effect and operation of any such withdrawals of territory in or with respect to the Province from which such territory shall have been withdrawn, and the Superintendent and Members of the Provincial Council thereof for the time being in office, and the laws in force in such Province at the time of such withdrawals of territory therefrom.

DESPATCHES FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO THE GOVERNOR OF NEW ZEALAND.