caAapr. Iv] THE PREROGATIVE OF MERCY 1407 
personal opinion to the advice of his ministers.! Then came 
the case of the pardon of a Maori, Mahi Kai, in New Zealand, 
on ministerial advice, in which Lord Onslow sent a dispatch 
on February 7, 1891, as follows to the Colonial Office :— 2 
I have the honour to report that on October 21, 1890, 
sentence of death was passed upon one Mahi Kai, a Maori 
convicted of the murder on April 12, 1890, of one Stephen 
Maloney. 
2. The jury in delivering the verdict accompanied it with 
a recommendation to mercy on account of his age (17 years), 
and his being of the native race. 
3. I went fully into the case, and my Executive Council 
advised me to commute the sentence to one of penal servitude 
for life, and I accordingly did so. 
4. The minute in the book recording the proceedings of 
the Executive Council is as follows : ‘ The Minister of Justice 
submits the case of Mahi Kai, an aboriginal native under 
sentence of death for murder at New Plymouth. Commuted 
to penal servitude for life.’ 
5. From this your Lordship will observe that there is no 
record of the advice given by the Executive Council, nor 
does any such advice appear upon the papers in connexion 
with the case. 
6. A question has been raised as to the form in which this 
advice should be given in such cases—whether orally at 
the Council, or in writing on the papers at the time of their 
consideration by the Executive Council. 
I enclose a memorandum from the Premier, from which 
your Lordship will gather that my present advisers entertain 
the opinion that all acts of administrative government 
within the Colony should, without exception, be done on the 
advice of ministers? 
They entertain the same opinion as to the advice which 
' Queensland Legislative Assembly Votes, 1889, i. 601. As the action 
recommended was under the Offenders’ Probation Act. 1886, the letters 
patent hardly, in my opinion, applied. 
* New Zealand Parl. Pap., 1891, Sess. 2, A. 1, pp. 5, 6; cf. pp. 19, 20. 
* They said that the power of pardon should be regulated like all other 
executive powers, that is, if the Governor wished he could refuse to accept 
advice subject to the ordinary consequences (viz. the need of finding other 
advisers in case of resignation), They do not discuss or recognize the case 
of action in Imperial interests as they were forced to do in 1892, when 
they did not resign when Lord Glasgow refused to grant them an increase 
in the Council.