The Short Title of this Act is “The Demise of the Crown Act, 1888.”

The General Assembly of New Zealand in being at any future demise of the Crown shall not be determined or dissolved by such demise, but shall continue so long as it would have continued but for such demise, unless it shall be sooner prorogued or dissolved by the Governor.

Any future demise of the Crown shall not affect anything done in New Zealand before the day whereon the Governor, by his Proclamation in the New Zealand Gazette, has notified such demise, and all things done within the said colony at any time after such demise but before the day of the publication of the Gazette containing the aforesaid Proclamation, and which but for this Act might be affected by any such demise, shall have the same effect and be of the same force as if no such demise had happened.

Every commission, warrant, or other authority for the exercise of any office or employment, of any kind or nature, within the colony, issued or exercised by the Governor in Council or the Governor, or by any other person in the name and on behalf of Her Majesty, in virtue of his office, or under the authority of any Act of the Imperial Parliament or of the General Assembly of New Zealand, or of any rules or regulations made thereunder respectively, shall continue in full force notwithstanding any future demise of the Crown until duly revoked or cancelled, and shall be of the same effect as if no such demise had happened, anything contained in an Act of the Imperial Parliament passed in the first year of His late Majesty King William the Fourth, chapter four, to the contrary notwithstanding.

No action, suit, or other process or proceeding, civil or criminal, in or to which Her Majesty shall be a party, or which shall have been commenced or carried on in her name or by her authority, shall, by reason of her demise, abate, discontinue, or be in any manner affected; but every such action, suit, process, or proceeding shall and may be carried on, enforced, or otherwise completed or acted on in the name of her successor, and as if such demise had not happened.

All contracts of every kind lawfully entered into by or on behalf of Her Majesty with any person, body, or authority, and all benefit and advantage thereof, and all liability in respect thereof, shall respectively attach and belong to the heirs and successors of Her Majesty, although they be not expressly named in any such contract.