A Bill to provide, until the thirty-first day of December, one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-two, for the government of New Caledonia.
Whereas divers of Her Majesty's subjects and others have, by the licence
and consent of Her Majesty, resorted to and settled on certain wild and
unoccupied territories on the north-west coast of North America,
commonly known by the designation of New Caledonia, and the islands
adjacent, for mining and other purposes; and it is desirable to make
some temporary provision for the civil government of such territories
until permanent settlements shall be thereupon established, and the
number of colonists increased: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's
most excellent Majesty, by and with the 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:--
I. New Caledonia shall, for the purposes of this Act, be held to
comprise all such territories within the dominions of Her Majesty as are
bounded to the south by the frontier of the United States of America, to
the east by the watershed between the streams which flow into the
Pacific Ocean, and those which flow into the Atlantic and icy oceans, to
the north by the 55th parallel of north latitude, and to the west by the
Pacific Ocean, and shall include Queen Charlotte's Island and all other
islands adjacent to the said territories, except as hereinafter
excepted.
II. It shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by any order or orders to be by
her from time to time made, with the advice of her Privy Council, to
make, ordain, or establish, and (subject to such conditions or
restrictions as to her shall seem meet) to authorise and empower such
officer as she may from time to time appoint to administer the
government of New Caledonia, to make provision for the administration of
justice therein, and generally to make, ordain, and establish all such
laws, institutions, and ordinances, as may be necessary for the peace,
order, and good government of Her Majesty's subjects and others therein;
provided that all such orders in council, and all laws and ordinances so
to be made as aforesaid, shall be laid before both houses of Parliament
as soon as conveniently may be after the making and enactment thereof
respectively.
III. Provided always, that it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, so soon
as she may deem it convenient by any such order in Council as aforesaid,
to constitute or authorise and empower such officer to constitute a
Legislature to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of
New Caledonia, such Legislature to consist of the Governor and a
Council, or Council and Assembly, to be composed of such and so many
persons, and to be appointed or elected such manner and in for such
periods, and subject to such regulations, as to Her Majesty may seem
expedient.
IV. And whereas an Act was passed in the forty-third year of King
George the Third, entitled "An Act for extending the jurisdiction of the
courts of justice in the Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada to the
trial and punishment of persons guilty of crimes and offences within
certain parts of North America adjoining to the said Provinces:" And
whereas by an Act passed in the second year of King George the Fourth,
entitled "An Act for regulating the fur trade, and establishing a
criminal and civil jurisdiction, within certain parts of North America,"
it was enacted, that from and after the passing of that Act the courts
of judicature then existing or which might be thereafter established in
the Province of Upper Canada, should have the same civil jurisdiction,
power, and authority, within the Indian territories and other parts of
America not within the limits of either of the Provinces of Lower or
Upper Canada or any civil government of the United States, as the said
courts had or were invested with within the limits of the said Provinces
of Upper or Lower Canada respectively, and that every contract,
agreement, debt liability, and demand made, entered into, incurred, or
arising within the said Indian territories and other parts of America,
and every wrong and injury to the person or to property committed or
done within the same, should be, and be deemed to be, of the same
nature, and be cognisable, and be tried in the same manner, and subject
to the same consequences in all respects, as if the same had been made,
entered into, incurred, arisen, committed, or done within the said
Province of Upper Canada; and in the same Acts are contained provisions
for giving force, authority, and effect within the said Indian
territories and other parts of America to the process and acts of the
said Courts of Upper Canada; and it was thereby also enacted, that it
should be lawful for His Majesty, if he should deem it convenient so to
do, to issue a commission, or commissions, to any person or persons to
be and act as justices of the peace within such parts of America as
aforesaid, as well within any territories theretofore granted to the
company of adventurers of England trading to the Hudson's Bay as within
the Indian territories of such other parts of America as aforesaid; and
it was further enacted, that it should be lawful for His Majesty, from
time to time, by any commission under the great seal, to authorise and
empower any such persons so appointed justices of the peace as aforesaid
to sit and hold courts of record for the trial of criminal offences and
misdemeanours, and also of civil causes, and it should be lawful for His
Majesty to order, direct, and authorise the appointment of proper
officers to act in aid of such courts and justices within the
jurisdiction assigned to such courts and justices in any such
commission, provided that such courts should not try any offender upon
any charge or indictment for any felony made the subject of capital
punishment, or for any offence, or passing sentence affecting the life
of any offender, or adjudge or cause any offender to suffer, capital
punishment or transportation, or take cognisance of or try any civil
action or suit in which the cause, of such suit or action should exceed
in value the amount or sum of two hundred pounds, and in every case of
any offence subjecting the person committing the same to capital
punishment or transportation, the court, or any judge of any such court,
or any justice or justices of the peace before whom any such offender
should be brought, should commit such offender to safe custody, and
cause such offender to be sent in such custody for trial in the court of
the Province of Upper Canada.
From and after the proclamation of this Act in New Caledonia the said
Act of the forty-third year of King George the Third, and the said
recited provisions of the said Act of the second year of King George the
Fourth, and the provisions contained in such Act for giving force,
authority, and effect within the Indian territories and other parts of
America to the process and acts of the said courts of Upper Canada,
shall cease to have force in and to be applicable to New Caledonia.
V. Provided always, that all judgments given in any civil suit in New
Caledonia shall be subject to appeal to Her Majesty in Council, in the
manner, and subject to the regulations in and subject to which appeals
are now brought from the civil courts of Canada, and to such further or
other regulations as Her Majesty, with the advice of her Privy Council,
shall from time to time appoint.
VI. No part of the colony of Vancouver's Island, as at present
established, shall be comprised within New Caledonia, for the purpose of
this Act; but it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, her heirs and
successors, on receiving at any time during the continuance of this Act,
a joint address from the two houses of the Legislature of Vancouver's
Island, praying for the incorporation of that island with New Caledonia,
by order to be made as aforesaid, with the advice of her Privy Council,
to annex the said island to New Caledonia, subject to such conditions
and regulations, as to Her Majesty shall seem expedient; and thereupon,
and from the date of the publication of such order, in the said island,
or such other date as may be fixed in such order, the provisions of this
Act shall be held to apply to Vancouver's Island.
VII. In the construction of this Act the term "Governor" shall mean the
person for the time being lawfully administering the government of New
Caledonia.
VIII. This Act shall continue in force until the thirty-first day of
December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and thenceforth to
the end of the then next session of Parliament.