3

G.—l.

the old days, at all events —when personal government was in its full glory. But I know—at least, I am much mistaken if in the latter days of Sir Donald McLean's life he did not come to the conclusion that it was necessary to curtail this personal mode of government. Circumstances were changed. For instance, a A renr small amount of expenditure at one time Avent a Ions? Avav with the Maoris. t. JL Of/ Bat now it is very different. At one time a great deal .vas to be done with a little sugar, a little flour, and some blankets; but now, Sir, the Maoris know very well how to ask, and, instead of demanding a bag of flour, a bag of sugar, or two or three blankets, they are not afraid to ask even so much as a million of money. That would be one reason, if there were no other, aa rhy I think, although it could be justified in a certain sense at one time, it cannot be justified uoav. I think that, for some years before the death of the gentleman to Avhom I have referred, he was doing his utmost—l do not say that he succeeded fully, or to any large extent, but he was doing his utmost —to reduce the management of the department to such a system that his personal interference in every matter Avould be less and less necessary. But he did, I believe, succeed to some extent; and I ask any one in this House whether during the last two years—l am sure every one must have remarked it —this personal management of the department has not been raised to almost all its former glory. The two great Native experts of the House— the two greatest Native experts in the colony, indeed—have been exerting themselves for the last two years among the Maoris to the utmost for the purpose of restoring the old system; but Ido not think the result is anything in favour of a personal mode of government. It is notorious that this personal government has grown to an extent which makes it almost unbearable. Why, the honorable member who proceeded me in this office could scarcely move about the streets of Wellington, and could not go about the country, without being fairly besieged by Natives waiting on him. They regarded him, apparently, as a sort of providence; and I am sure that, if he were to be put in the witness-box and examined upon the subject, he Avould say that that sort of thing was going on to such an extent as to seriously interfere with the ordinary working of the department. That was not all. He was not only waited upon and besieged in this manner personally, but Avaited upon through the post office and through the telegraph station. I believe it has been no unfrequent thing on his part —I do not know whether he told me so himself, but at any rate I have had it upon very good authority—to receive something like a hundred and fifty telegrams in a single day. Of course a great number of these telegrams Avere connected in some way or another with money, or what our friend Mr. Chadband would call " the corn, the wine, and the oil"—money, or moneys worth. I promised, Avhen I began, to submit a specimen-page occasionally, and I will now do so by reading a telegram addressed to the honorable gentleman, omitting names, which is a very fair specimen of a class of which the honorable gentleman must have received a great many. This is the telegram :— " Friend, do not be vexed at the number of my wires and Avords to you. They are addressed to you as the redresser of the grievances of all the people ; hence I seek such relief at your hands. Friend, do not be annoyed at the multiplicity of my requests. l)o you consent to my request for £2,000, so that I may settle with " I may say here, by .vay of parenthesis, that this £2,000 Was given to him; but I shall have to refer to that more particularly directly, and Avill pass over it for the present. The telegram proceeds, " Eriend, I ani your true servant. Consider my prayer. The money will not be merely given : the Government .vill hereafter obtain what they desire." This is the sort of telegram of which lam sure the honorable member must have received a great number. Possibly, for anything I know, there may have been a hundred such out of the one hundred and fifty received by the honorable gentleman in the course of a single day. What I want to point out in connection Avith this is, that this sudden vigour which has been infused into the personal management of the Natives does not by any means point to the abolition or abatement of the Native Department, but has a tendency exactly in the opposite direction. Personal government by the Native Minister