A—No. 1.

4

COMMISSION AND ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS

Commission and the Instructions under our Sign Manual and Signet herein referred to. Protii>£D nevertheless ths:t by the appointment of a Deputy as aforesaid, your power and authority as Governor of our said Colony, shall not be abridged, altered, or in any way affected, otherwise than we may at any time hereafter think proper to direct. 10. And in case of the death, incapacity, or absence of you from the said Colony and its Dependencies, our will and pleasure is that this our Commission and the several powers herein, and by our aforesaid instructions vested in you, shall be exercised by such person as may be appointed by us under our Sign Manual and Signet, to be our Lieutenant Governor of our said Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, or to Administer the Government of the same. But if at the time of such your death, incapacity, or absence, there shall be no person within our said Colony appointed by us as aforesaid to be our Lieutenant Governor or Administrator of the Government thereof, then our pleasure is and we do hereby provide and direct that in any such contingency the Senior Officer for the time being in command of our Land Forces within our said Colony shall take upon himself the Administration of the Government thereof and shall execute this our Commission and the several powers herein and in the aforesaid instructions contained. 11. And We do iiekeby require and command all Officers, Civil and Military, and all other Inhabitant! of the said Colony and its Dependencies, to be obedient, aiding, and assisting unto you or to the Officer Administering the Government for the time being in the execution of this our Commission, and of the powers and authorities herein contained. In Witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patent. Witness ourself at Westminster, the twelfth day of August, in the twenty-fifth year of our Reign. Br Warrant undeu tue Queen's Sign Manual. C. ROMILLT.

Instructions to our trusty and well-beloved Sir George Grey, Knight. Commander of our Most Honorable Order of the Bath, our Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over our Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, or in his absence, to our Lieutenant-Governor, or the officer administering the Government of our said Colony for the time being. Given at our Court, at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, tins twelfth day of August, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of our Reign. First. Whereas by our Commission under the Great Seal of our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing even date herewith constituting and appointing you to be our Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over our Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, for and during our will and pleasure, we have required and commanded you to do and execute all things in due manner that shall belong to your said command, aud the trust thereby reposed in you according to and in pursuance of an Act of the Session holden in the fifteenth aud sixteenth years of our Reign, intituled "An Act to grant a Representative Constitution to the Colony of New Zealand," and according to the several Powers and directions granted or appointed you by our said Commission and the Instructions therewith given to you, or according to such further powers, instructions and authorities as should at any time hereafter be granted to or appointed for you under our vSign Manual and Signet, or by our order in our Privy Council, or by us through one of our Principal Secretaries of State. Now therefore we do by these our instructions under our Royal Sign Manual aud Signet, being the instructions so referred to in and accompanying our said Commission, declare our pleasure to be, that you shall with all due solemnity cause our said Commission to be read and published in the presence of the Chief Justice of our said Colony for the time being, and of the Members of the Executive Council thereof, and you shall then and there take the Oath of Allegiance as prescribed by the Act of the First year of the Reign of King George the First, Statute 2, Chapter 13, Section 2, and likewise that you do take the Oath for the due execution of the Oifice and trust of our Governor and Commander-in-Chief iv and over our said Colony and for the due aud impartial Administration of Justice, which said Oaths the Chief Justice for the time being of our said Colony or in his absence any Judge of the Supreme Court of our said Colony shall and he is hereby required to tender and administer unto you. Second. And vie do hereby authorise aud require you from time to time, and at any time hereafter by yourself or by any other person to be authorised by you in that behalf, to administer to all and to every person or persons, as you shall think fit, who shall hold any office or place of trust or profit, or who shall at any time or times pass into our said Colony, or who shall be resident or abiding therein, the Oath commonly called the Oath of Allegiance, save only in cases wherein any other Oath or Oaths, is or are prescribed by the Statutes in that behalf made or by any of them, in which case it is our pleasure and we do hereby direct that you do administer or cause to be administered to such persons such other Oath or Oaths as aforesaid. Third. And whereas by the said recited Act of Parliament of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth years of our Reign, it is amongst other jthings enacted that it shall be lawful for us by any instrument under our Sign Manual, to authorise you iv our name to Summon to the Legislative Council of the said Colony such person or persons as we shall thiuk fit. Now therefore in pursuance of the said recited Act and in the exercise of the powers thereby vested in us, we do by these our instructions under our Sign Manual authorise you, in our name to summon to the Legislative Council from time to time such person or persons as you shall deem to be prudent and discreet meu, either iv addition to the present Members of the said Council or for supplying any vacancies which may take place therein by death or otherwise, but so that the whole number of the said Council shall not at auy time exceed twenty. Provided always that in accordance with tho