WHEREAS by Letters Patent passed under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and bearing date the eighteenth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six, after reciting as is therein particularly recited, Her Majesty Queen Victoria did thereby authorize the Governor for the time being of the Colony of New Zealand, by Proclamation under his hand and the Public Seal of the said Colony, to declare that, from and after a day to be therein mentioned, certain islands belonging to Her Majesty situated in the South Pacific Ocean between the parallels of twenty-nine degrees and thirty-two degrees south latitude and the meridians of one hundred and seventy-seven degrees and one hundred and eighty degrees west longitude, and commonly known as the Kermadec Group, should be annexed to and form part of the Colony of New Zealand: And whereas by the said Letters Patent it is directed that the said Governor shall not issue any such Proclamation as aforesaid until the Legislature of the Colony of New Zealand shall have passed a law providing that the said islands shall, on the day aforesaid, become part of the said colony, and subject to the laws in force therein: Provided always that the application of the said laws to the said islands may be modified either by such Proclamation as aforesaid, or by any law or laws to be from time to time passed by the Legislature of the said colony for the government of the said islands so annexed: And whereas it is expedient that a law should be passed by the General Assembly, as the Legislature of the Colony of New Zealand, for the purpose of giving effect to the said Letters Patent: