§ MR. CATHCART WASON (Orkney and Shetland)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in view of the fact that a new Table of Precedence has 585 been brought into operation in New Zealand by local executive action, and seeing that this is a departure from the usual custom of dealing with such matters either by local statute or by tables settled in conference with the Home Government, whether he can state by what authority this step has been taken.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINI had been for some time in correspondence with the Governor of New Zealand respecting the order of precedence in that colony, and in view of the visit of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, and pending the settlement of a permanent table, gave permission for the arrangement of a provisional scale of precedence in any way the Governor and his Ministers might think proper.