§ *LORD HAWKESBURYIt having been represented to me that some dissatisfaction exists in New Zealand with 653 regard to a recent decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, I beg to ask the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack whether his attention has been called to the matter.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (The Earl of HALSBURY)I very much regret to say that I think owing to a misapprehension of what was intended by the words used, there has been a feeling created in New Zealand in respect to a judgment of the Privy Council, and accordingly I have thought it right to make inquiry on the subject, and I am happy to say that I have received an assurance from the learned Judges who decided the case that they never intended to make any attack whatever on the Court of Appeal in New Zealand. The mode in which the case was conducted and certain observations contained in the judgment of the Court of Appeal in New Zealand induced the learned Judges to make the remarks as to which remonstrance has been made; but I am assured by the learned Judges that it never occurred to any one of them that in the observations they thought it right to make they were making an attack on the Court of Appeal in New Zealand, or that they intended in any way to comment on the character or conduct of their proceedings. I trust that this assurance will be conveyed to the Court of Appeal in New Zealand, and that the feeling aroused will be found to have been based on a total misapprehension.
§ House adjourned at five minutes past Five o'clock, to Monday next, a quarter before Eleven o'clock.