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E—No. 2

laws which the Europeans make in their Runangas, both in New Zealand and in the great Runanga of the Queen in England. 2. Every district will be subdivided into Hundreds, and in each of these there will be Assessors appointed. The men of that district will choose who shall be Assessors, only the Governor will have the word to decide whether the cheice is good or not. The Magistrate, with these Assessors, will hold Courts for disputes about debts of money, about cattle trespass, about all breaches of the law in that district. They will decide in all these cases. 3. In every Hundred there will be Policemen, and one Chief Policeman, who will be under the Assessors. These Policemen will summon all persons against whom there are complaints before the Court of the Assessors, and when the Assessors shall have decided, the Policeman will see that the orders of the Assessors are carried out. All fines which shall be paid shall be applied to some public uses. The Commissioner or Magistrate will keep this money till it is required. 4. The Runangas will also be assisted in establishing and maintaining Schools and Teachers ; sometimes Europeans, sometimes Maories, will be appointed. The Maories ought to pay part of the salary of the School Teacher, the Governor wijl pay the rest. 5. Where the Runangas wish to have an European doctor to live among them, the Governor will endeavour to procure one to reside there, and will pay him so much salary as may make him willing to go to that work, The doctor will give medicine to the Maories when they are sick, and will teach them what things are good for the rearing of their children, to make them strong and healthy, and how to prolong the lives of all the Maories by eating good food, by keeping their houses clean, by having proper clothes and other things relating to their health. This will be the business of the doctor. But all those who require the services of the doctor will pay for them, except such as the Runanga may decide to be too poor to do so. 6. About the Lands of the Maories. It will be for the Runangas to decide all disputes about the lands. It will be good that each Runanga should make a Register, in which should be written a statement of all the lands within the district of that Runanga, so that everybody may know, and that there may be no more disputings about land. This then is what the Governor intends to do, to assist the Maori in the good work of establishing law and order. These are the first things:—the Runangas, the Assessors, the Policemen, the Schools, the Doctors, the Civil Commissioners to assist the Maories to govern themselves, to make good laws, and to protect the weak against the strong. There will be many more things to be planned and to be decided; but about such things the Runangas and the Commissioners will consult. This work will be a work of time, like the growing of a large tree —at first there is the seed, then there is one trunk, then there are branches innumerable, and very many leaves: by and bye, perhaps, there will be fruit also. But the growth of the tree is slow —the branches, the leaves, and fruit did not appear all at once, when the seed was put in the ground : and so will it be with the good laws of the Runanga. This is the seed which the Governor desires to sow : —the Runangas, the Assessors, the Commissioners, and the rest. Bye and bye, perhaps, this seed will grow into a very great tree, which will bear good fruit on all its branches. The Maories, then, must assist in the planting of this tree, in the training of its branches, in cultivating the ground about its roots; and, as the tree grows, the children of the Maori, also, will grow to be a rich, wise, and prosperous people, like the English aud those other Nations which long ago began the work of making good laws, and obeying them. This will be the Work of Peace, on which the blessing of Providence will rest, —which will make the storms to pass away from the sky,—and all things will become light between the Maori and the Pakeha ; aud the heart of the Queen will then be glad when she hears that the two races are living quietly together, as, hrothers, in the good and prosperous land of New Zealand.

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MINUTES BY THE GOVERNOR AND MINISTERS.

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