A.—3

4

Unless such Bill shall contain a Clause suspending the Operation of such Bill until the Signification in the Colony of Our Pleasure thereupon, or unless you shall have satisfied yourself that an Urgent Necessity exists requiring that such Bill be brought into Immediate Operation, in which case you are authorized to Assent in Our Name to such Bill, unless the same shall be repugnant to the Law of England, or inconsistent with any Obligations imposed upon Us by Treaty. But you are to transmit to Us by the earliest opportunity the Bill so Assented to, together with your Reasons for Assenting thereto.

Laws Bent home to have marginal abstracts. Journals and Minutes. Regulation of power of pardon. Delegation of certain powers to the Governor. Uemoval of Superintendents of Provinces. Establishment of Municipal Corporations. Preservation of aboriginal laws, customs, and usages. Purchase or acquisition, &c, of lands belonging to the Aboriginal Natives.

12. You will take care that all Laws Assented to by you in Our Name, or Reserved for the Signification of Our Pleasure thereon, shall when transmitted by you be fairly Abstracted in the Margins, an( j De accompanied, in such cases as may seem to you necessary, with such explanatory Observations as may be required to exhibit the Reasons and Occasion for proposing such Laws ; and you shall also transmit fair Copies of the Journals and Minutes of the Proceedings of the Legislative Bodies of Our gaid Colony, which you are to require from the Clerks, or other proper Officers in that behalf, of the said Legislative Bodies. 13. And whereas "We have by Our said Commission Authorized and Empowered you, as you shall see occasion, in Our Name and on Our Behalf, to grant to any Offender convicted of any Crime in any Court, or before any Judge, Justice, or Magistrate within our said Colony, a Pardon, either free or subject to lawful conditions : Now "We do hereby Direct and Enjoin you to call upon the Judge presiding at the trial of any Offender who may from time to time be Condemned to suffer Death by the Sentence of any Court within Our said Colony, to make to you a Written Report of the case of such Offender, and such Report of the said Judge shall by you be taken into consideration at the first Meeting thereafter which may be conveniently held of Our said Executive Council, where the said Judge may be specially summoned to attend; and you shall not Pardon or Reprieve any such Offender as aforesaid, unless it shall appear to you expedient so to do, upon receiving the Advice of Our Executive Council therein; but in all such cases you are to decide either to extend or to withhold a Pardon or Reprieve, according to your own deliberate judgment, whether the Members of Our said Executive Council concur therein or otherwise ; entering, nevertheless, on the Minutes of the said Council, a Minute of your reasons at length, in case you should decide any such Question in opposition to the judgment of the majority of the Members thereof. 14. Whereas by the said recited Act of the Session holden in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Tears of Our Reign, it was, among other things, provided that at any time during the continuance of the Office of any Superintendent of a Province, it should be lawful for Us to remove him from such Office, on receiving an Address signed by the Members of the Provincial Council of such Province praying for such Removal : And whereas it was by the said Act further enacted, that it should be lawful for jJs, i n an( j by an y Letters Patent to be issued under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, from me to t j me 0 CoElß titu.te and establish within any District or Districts of New Zealand one or more Municipal Corporation or Corporations, and to grant to any such Corporation all or any of the Powers -which, in pursuance of the Statutes in that behalf made and provided, it is competent for Us to grant to c inhabitants of any Town or Borough in England and Wales, incorporated in virtue of such Statutes, or any of them, and to qualify and restrict the exercise of any such Powers in such and the same manner as by the Statutes aforesaid, or any of them, We may qualify or restrict the exercise of any such Powers as aforesaid in England : Provided always, that all provisions of any such Letters Patent, and all By-Laws or Regulations made by any such Corporation, should be subject to Alteration or Repeal by any Ordinance or Act of the Provincial Council for the Province in which any such Corporation might be established, or of the General Assembly, according to their respective Powers therein before declared : And whereas it was by the said Act further enacted, that whereas it might be expedient that the Laws, Customs, and Usages of the Aboriginal or Native Inhabitants of New Zealand, 80 far as they are not repugnant to the general principles of humanity, should for the present be maintained for the government of themselves in all their relations to and dealings with each other, and that particular Districts should be set apart within which such Laws, Customs, or Usages should be so observed, it should be lawful for Us, by any Letters Patent to be issued under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, from time to time, to make -provision for the purposes aforesaid, any repugnancy of any such Laws, Customs, or Usages to the Law of England, or to any Law, Statute, or Usage in force in New Zealand, or in part thereof, in anywise notwithstanding: And whereas it was by the said Act further enacted, that it should be lawful for Us, by any such Letters Patent as therein mentioned, or Instructions under Our Sign-Manual and- Signet, or signified through one of Our Principal Secretaries of State, to delegate to the Governor any of the Powers thereinbefore reserved to Us, respecting (amongst other things) the Removal of Superintendents of Provinces, the Establishment of Municipal Corporations, and the Preservation of Aborginal Laws, Customs, and Usages: And whereas it was by the said Act further provided, that it should not be lawful for any Person other than Ourselves, Our Heirs or Successors, to Purchase or in anywise Acquire or Accept from the Aboriginal Natives Land of or belonging to, or used or occupied by, them in common as Tribes or Communities, or to accept any Release or Extinguishment of the Rights of such Aboriginal Natives in any such Land as aforesaid, and that no Conveyance or Transfer, or Agreement for the Conveyance or Transfer, of any Buc \ l Land, either in perpetuity or for any term or period, either absolutely or conditionally, and either in Property or by way or Lease or Occupancy, and no such Release or Extinguishment as aforesaid should be of any Validity or Effect, unless the same were made to or entered into with and accepted by Us, Our Heirs or Successors : Provided always, that it should be lawful for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, by Instructions under Our or Their Sign-Manual and Signet, or signified through one of Our Principal Secretaries of State, to Delegate Our Powers of Accepting such Conveyances or Agreements, Releases or Relinquishments, to the Governor of New Zealand, or the Superintendent of any Province within the limits of such Province : Now We do hereby Delegate to you all and every the said Powers by the said Act reserved to Us, which are hereinbefore recited : 15. And We do further Direct and Enjoin that you do, to the utmost of your Power, promote