WHEREAS at various times, and at sittings of the Supreme Court and other Courts at Gisborne, persons have heretofore been committed and sentenced to be imprisoned at the public prison or public gaol at Gisborne aforesaid: And whereas, by a Proclamation under the hand of His Excellency the Governor, bearing date the third day of December, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one, and published in the New Zealand Gazette of the eighth day of December then instant, it was proclaimed and declared that the public prison at Gisborne should cease to be a public prison from and after the date of the publication of the said Proclamation as aforesaid, and, by a Proclamation of even date and publication, the said prison was declared to be a police gaol, but persons have been committed and sentenced to be imprisoned by such Courts at the said gaol since such last-mentioned date upon the assumption that such gaol was still a public prison: And whereas it is expedient that the said police gaol should be declared to have been a public prison, and that all such commitments and sentences, and the imprisonment consequent thereon, should be validated as hereinafter provided: