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these respects the Native Minister has a great deal of power in the distribution of the money A'oted by this House—a power which no other Minister of the Crown can aspire to. But the expenditure is by no means confined to the cases I have given. I Avill now produce another specimen-page or two to show hoAV expenditure spreads itself in other directions. For example, a Native chief enters an action against a European; the case comes on for trial; he retains counsel, takes advice, brings his witnesses to Court, and so on. All tbis, of course, is very expensive. The case goes against him. A new trial is ordered, and the same thing goes on again. Witnesses have to be brought from a distance; lawyers have to be paid; the case goes to trial once more, and again goes against him. And the bills for all this are sent in to the Government, and would have been paid if it had not been that the payment Avould have disqualified a member of this House. Again, Sir, a chief has the misfortune to lose his wife, and he thinks it necessary to have a grand funeral. The funeral expenses amount to something like £300, and he is pressed for the money. He applies, as a matter of course, to the Government for the money. The Government advance it, taking—l do not know whether honorable members will be surprisecbat it—taking a promissory note for the amount. And, curiously enough, there is no due date stated on the face of the document for the repayment of the money. HoAvever, that is how the thing was done. The money was advanced, and the promissory note is now lying at the Government offices. Well, Sir, these things are apt to grow upon the Native Minister. I believe myself that, if I Avere only a year or so in office, I should come to vieAv these things as many other people view them. Very likely I. should excel in this direction. I have not tried it, and I might make a grand hand at it. But this kind of expenditure goes even a little further; and I will give the House some information in reference to the telegram Avhich I read from a Native chief for a loan of £2,000. You have heard me read the telegram, to the effect that £2,000 Avas urgently required. Well, he got that £2,000. I Avill tell the House hoAV he got it; and the circumstance will show —I was going to say the demoralizing effect, but that avouM be too strong a Avord; but it will show the tendency of this personal government. Of course when these requests are made, they have to be granted, and exceptional means have to be adopted for granting them. The method adopted in this instance was this : The Native Minister directed a banker in the neighbourhood where the Maori lived to make the advance to the Government agent —a European agent, be it understood—of £2,000, and then he directed the Government agent to transfer the £2,000 to the Native who wanted it. That was the process that was adopted; and I Avould point out that this is another item that cannot be under the control of the House, because it was never voted by the House. When I have got used to the position I shall very likely do this kind of thing myself; but at present I am bound to say that this appears to be—well, what shall I call it ? To put it in plain Avords, I think the Native Minister had no more right to do that than any private member of this House. That is my view of the case. I say that these things are the result of the personal government and the personal management ofthe Native Department. I ought to say that the Native chief repaid £1,000 out of the £2,000. The remainder noAV stands due at the bank, and I may say that the bank is uoav pressing the Government to pay the money in order to square up the half-yearly account; so that half the amount has been paid, and interest has to be paid on the other half. In this connection, and in order to slioav the growing danger of this personal government, I Avill give another case. It is a case that has excited some little sympathy in me, because I can sec that it may groAv to large dimensions, and may be an injury to the men lam going to speak about, and to others of like kind. A number of Native chiefs have sent their sons to school, and have given them in some cases a very good education. Now, that is a very laudable thing ; but, though these lads have received a very good education, they probably are not as well educated as their parents suppose they are, and in some cases the parents have sent those lads down to Wellington with a request that they should be taken into the Civil Sendee. I say, if the government of the department is to be dependent on the personal influence of the Minister, that is a request which can scarcely be