E.—No. 4.

10.) Thus the effect of an appeal to the law would be to give over the child into the hands of its mother. There are cases in which children neglected by both father and mother are being educated in the Public Schools. Were an attempt made to compel the father to contribute, the opportunity would be eagerly seized by the mother or the mother's friends to claim the child and carry it off to a Native village and thus all hopes of reclaiming it would be lost. I have met with other cases which are not contemplated by the existing law. Half-caste children with neither father nor mother to care for them, living wild like stray dogs or cats in the Native villages ; and European children lost or abandoned in the neighbourhood of Auckland, who have been brought either from compassion or from interested motives by the Maoris into this part of the country, and grown up indistinguishable except by color from the Maoris themselves. An English boy aged about 11 was very recently brought to a village on the Waipa, near Mr. Reid's Mission Station. He was found at Papakura, and said both his parents were dead. I tried to see him when at Mr. Reid's last Friday, but he had gone out eel fishing with his Maori friends. Mr. Reid has promised to try and pursuade the Natives to give him up to me. Is there any public provision for such cases 1 I conceive that those Europeans and half-caste Orphans have a strong claim on the public to save them from growing up as Maoris. The difficulties which I have mentioned would be removed by a law, that a Resident Magistrate on being satisfied that a child was destitute, might order it to be placed in one of the public Schools, and that if on inquiry he found any person liable as father or putative father to support it, he might order a sum of money to be paid by the person liable to support it to the manager of the School. I have, &c, J. E. Gorst, R. M. The Honorable the Attorney-General.

No. 4. MEMORANDUM by j. e. goest, r.m., on the establishment of a police station at kohekohe, AND AN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL AT OTAWHAO. I assume that, in the present state of this district the policy of the Government should be specially directed to the following objects : — (1.) To devise means by which the young men of those Tribes who already acknowledge the Queen's sovereignty, as well as those who are not amenable to the influence of reason, and are chief promoters of all mischief, can be attached to the British Government. (2.) To provide some instrument by which obedience to law can be enforced without the risk of provoking a war of races. (3.) To exhibit to the disaffected Tribes of the Upper Waikato the results of submission to the British authority, by at once proceeding to govern and civilize the well-affected Tribes of Lower Waikato (if such exist). To attain these objects I suggest the following means :— (1.) The organization of a strong preventive police in the Lower District. (2.) The establishment of an efficient industrial school for big boys, at Otawhao, in the Upper District. (1.) The best place for attempting to initiate such a force is at Meremere. William Wheoro is going to build a court-house. Let a barrack for the accommodation of a police force be added to it. Let it be large enough to accommodate sixty men. The members of the force should be young, able-bodied men, and not taken exclusively from any one Tribe. It is better that the corps should be at first small, than have any but the most select men admitted into its ranks. The men should be dressed in uniform, and well lodged and fed. They should be carefully and constantly drilled by a sergeant who could no doubt be procured from one of the regiments stationed at Pokeno, for that purpose. Arms should not be put into their hands until they could be thoroughly trusted; in the meanwhile the men would bring their own muskets with which to learn the drill. The men should be paid at the rate of Gd. a day (this is double the King's pay). At the outset, to inspire confidence, I would give notice that every man was at perfect liberty to leave whenever he chose to do so. This Corps would in my opinion attract recruits from the upper part of the river, provided that the pay and accommodation was superior to that which can be afforded to the King's soldiers. Every means should be adopted to promote esprit de corps. In order to make the service more attractive, and at the same time civilizing, there should be attached to the Corps, a carpenter, a blacksmith, and a schoolmaster. The men should be paraded for morning and evening prayers and have certain hours during the day for school instruction. Each man should also be employed during part of the day in either the carpenter's or blacksmith's shop, according to his own choice. Ample time must be reserved for rest and recreation.

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NATIVE AFFAIRS.