Until the governor shall appoint a commissioner as herein provided, the present commissioner of the department of public safety shall continue in office as such commissioner. Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to terminate any commission, appointment, or employment heretofore existing under the provisions of acts hereinafter repealed. All matters and orders pending before or made by any officer or department transferred under this act to the department of Michigan state police shall be deemed to be continued with like status in such department of Michigan state police. All existing appropriations for the support and maintenance of any office, department, division, bureau, or branch, transferred under this act, or for the performance of any duties, so transferred to the said department of Michigan state police, are hereby transferred to said department for the support and maintenance of the department of the Michigan state police. Whenever reference is made in any law to the “commissioner of public safety” or to the “department of public safety” such reference shall be construed to mean, respectively, the commissioner of the Michigan state police and department of Michigan state police herein provided for.