New Zealand Constitution Act 1846

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The New Zealand Constitution Act 1846 (German: New Zealand constitutional law of 1846) was a law passed by the United Kingdom , which should allow the former British colony of New Zealand to have an independent government and administration. The law never came into full application, but remained in effect until it was replaced by the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 .

history

Until the law was passed, the governor and colonial government of New Zealand were not freely elected, but the governor was installed by the government in London and the colonial government was appointed by the governor of New Zealand. With the new law, the UK government intended to:

  • to lead larger parishes than boroughs and to equip them with their own council based on the English model,
  • to divide the country into two provinces, each with their own parliaments and an appointed Legislative Council . The parliament should be elected by the mayors and councilors of the boroughs and the executive power should be headed by the governor of the country.
  • establish a general assembly with a governor-in-chief , an appointed Legislative Council, and a House of Representatives , the members of which are appointed by the Provincial House of Representatives .

The two provinces of New Ulster and New Munster were established. They also got their own Lieutenant Governor (Deputy Governor), an Executive and Legislative Council , but the New Ulster Provincial Legislative Council never met, and the New Munster Provincial Legislative Council only met once in 1849. Because then Governor George Edward Gray successfully opposed the complete introduction of the law to the government in London . Gray justified his request to London to postpone the effectiveness of the law by five years with the argument that this would give enough time to successfully assimilate the Māori , who still made up the largest part of the population of New Zealand, and to be able to subordinate colonial laws.

In 1852 the first version of the New Zealand Constitution Act was replaced by the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 and this time also implemented. The new Constitution Act lasted until 1986 and was replaced by the Constitution Act 1986 of the Labor government under David Lange .

literature

  • An Act to make further provision for the Government of the New Zealand Islands . In: New Zealand Government (Ed.): The London Gazette . Numb. 20687. London December 29, 1846, p. 5997-6012 (English, online [accessed November 6, 2016] content of the law with correspondence between the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Governor of New Zealand).
  • Subsidiarity as a Constitutional Principle in New Zealand . In: Faculty of Law, Victoria University (Ed.): New Zealand Journal of Public and International Law . Volume 12 Number 1 , September 2014, ISSN  1176-3930 , p. 123-144 (English).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Malcolm McKinnon : Colonial and provincial government - The crown colony, 1840 to 1852 . In: Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . Ministry of Culture & Heritage , July 13, 2012, accessed August 21, 2016 .