G.-l.

4

means personal expenditure by the Native Minister. To see that, we have only to glance at the sums the Native Minister has at his disposal—sums voted by this House, but the control of Avhich, so far as the manner of spending it is concerned, has passed absolutely aAvay from this House. In going over these sums, and putting them together, although I had a little knoAvledge on the subject previously, I have been perfectly astonished at the amount of money the Native Minister could distribute unknoAvn to the House. I do not knoAV whether the House Avill be surprised or not. When my honorable friend the Colonial Treasurer made his Statement the other night, and laid bare some financial matters, members opposite said, '■' Oh !we knew all this before." And I may be told, as to what lam going to point out, that honorable members are aware of such things already, and clo not disapprove of them. Well, I knoAV this : that there are honorable members opposite aalio, a few years ago, did disapprove of such transactions. Sir, times have changed, and men may have changed Avith them; and that puts me in mind of an old rhyme current in the English Parliament some years ago, which ran something like this : — No more they make a fiddle-faddle About a Hessian horse or saddle, A million and a vote of credit; 'Tis right —he can't be wrong who did it. I do not knoAV, as I say, whether this personal government of Avhich I am going to speak is approved by the House or not. It may be; and, of course, any gentleman who can smooth OA rer or put a gloss upon AA rhat the Colonial Treasurer said the other night Avith respect to the finances of the colony will have no difficulty, I apprehend, in painting transactions connected with the Native Department in the colour of the rose. I want to give honorable members an idea of the various sums that are solely within the control of the Native Minister. I may explain here, again, in case I did not make myself sufficiently clear before, that I am speaking of the office of Native Minister, and not of the Hon. John Sheehan personally. lam speaking of the department as it might be conducted by any one under the system of personal government. There are a good many sums within the control of the Native Minister. Eor instance, last year, 1878-79, there was a sum voted for roads in Native districts, £2,000. Now, of course that amount properly comes within the Public Works Department; but there is this peculiarity about the matter, that the Public Works Department absolutely accepts the recommendation of the Native Minister as to how that money should be spent. I am not aware of a single refusal of the recommendation of the Native Minister as to how the money should be spent and dealt with. And I Avish further to point out that the Native Minister himself cannot possibly have that knoAvledge of the various AA rorks that are required to be executed under this vote. He has no competent staff of officials to fall back upon, from Avhom he might receive what I may call responsible advice, and he has actually to ask advice of the people aalio solicit him for that expenditure. It has so happened that people have come to him and asked him if he did not think such-and-such an expenditure would be a good thing, and he has had to take their advice and their opinion as to the propriety of the expenditure, and in some cases, I knoAV, has relied upon such opinions. Of course it is utterly impossible that the Native Minister can be acquainted with the works for which he authorizes this expenditure. There is another item which was passed in 1878-79 that deserves notice : a sum of £15,000 was voted for opening up Native lands ; and, as it is of so kindred a character to the other vote, I have no doubt it has practically been regarded as part of the other vote : at any rate, it is also within the control of the Native Minister, and his recommendations as to the expenditure are taken by the Public Works Department absolutely without demur. And I may just state that it was proposed by the late Ministry, according to the estimates I have gone through, to increase these items during the current year to £50,000 —that is, £25,000 each. I call the attention of the House to the fact that a good deal of this expenditure is passed over to local bodies. There are a good many small items, such as 7s. 6d., 10s., and so forth; but there are a number of larger items to which I shall call special attention presently. I hold in my hand a detailed return of the expenditure under these heads, and I