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shall not be left for a person to consent or not to take his matter before the Committee, but that it shall be compulsory for him to do so. (5.) To adjudicate the lands in favour of hapus, and not individuals. (6.) To have a Committee appointed for each hapti. (7.) For the Boards to conduct all matters relating to sales or leases, as the case may be, and that the Government and private Europeans have nothing at all to do with it. Let them —the Committees or Boards—be independent of the Government or companies. (8.) Do away with all prospecting for gold, coal, iron, or any other mineral that may be found under the ground—that is, do not allow prospecting for these things to take place during the present time, not until things are settled. (9.) That the number of Maori members of the House be increased, and whenever it is proposed to pass an Act that affects the Maori race that copies of the Bill should be circulated beforehand amongst the Native people; and, if these things that I have referred to are carried out, I believe that good will be the result—that is, your knowledge and experience will be combined with my knowledge, and good will be the result. (10.) To have the boundary of the prohibition licensing district rectified, and make the prohibition to be enforced in that district very stringent indeed. Should these things be carried out I am sure that good will be the result of them. To Hoti Tamehana spoke in favour of retaining the Native Land Court. Hopa te Sangianini, after referring to his greeting to Mr. Ballance that morning, said : If you want to put your railway through, put it through; but, as to the payment for the land, do not part with it yet; make no payment on account of it. If a man of rank or a man of no rank asks for payment, give him nothing, but as soon as their names are in the order of the Court you will know whom to pay. Will you treat me in that way or not ? Go on with your railway (or public works), that is your policy, but we shall still expect you to conduct matters for the good of the Native people. We must now be joined together and not be at enmity, and we should combine to resist an outside foe, should there be any. Taonui said that the causes of trouble coming amongst them were those nientioned by Mr. Ormsby. He went on to say : These things mentioned by Mr. Ormsby are what we have all been discussing. We wish that all these matters that have caused pain to our hearts and trouble to our land may be done away with ; and this is the day on which they can be done away with. Then we shall truly be one, and say to each other, ' Ehoa, tena koe ; Ehoa, tena koe.' We shall then nod our heads one to another and gaze in each other's countenances. After some more to the same effect, he said: "If you carry out these matters I shall nod my head to you; if you will not carry them out I will not nod my head to you." Pineha Taiuhaki referred to the introduction of Christianity into the Island. He stated that as time went on he heard of the Native Land Court and of Sir Donald McLean, whom he took to be a land purchase officer, but afterwards found out that he was called a Minister. Time went on and he saw Mr. Bryce, who put a road (railway) through their land. Mr. Bryce said, " Allow the roads to goon in order that the Maori people may be benefited." He thought that they (the Maoris) would be allowed to use the train without payment. Te Hauraki said :I am going to speak what is in my mind. My first word to you is with regard to the external boundary. I want you to ratify it, in order that people may not enter it and interfere, and in order that no Maori may go and take money from Europeans for land within that boundary. Do not allow the Court to have any jurisdiction within it. The land there should be treated as Heripukanga was. Do away with the payments that have been made on account of that block, and leave it for those who took the money to refund it. That piece of land is within the external boundary. I want Mr. Ballance to remove any payments that have been made on account of it. That is all I have got to say about that. I have already asked you to be stringent in making regulations regarding this block. Leave the road (railway) for the present. It will go through in the course of years. Leave it for some years hence till you have settled all matters concerning the land for the Natives to reside on; then the railway can be made. Let the Land Court be outside the boundary. Do not let it go on inside it. Aporo te Taratutu also deprecated the railway being pushed on in a hurry. Mr. Ballance said : I have listened carefully to the speeches that have been made here to-day. I heard Wahanui narrate what he had done in Wellington. Most of the questions "discussed here to-day were discussed between us when he was in Wellington during the session. He has referred to the erection of a trig, station. The erection of trig, stations, as the Native people are aware, has nothing whatever to do with the title to the land. They are erected to enable the land to be surveyed, and the titles to be made out when the time has come for that purpose. Most of the subjects that concern the Native people were alluded to from time to time between us. When a Bill was brought forward to deal with the Native lands on either side of the railway, it was referred to Wahanui for his opinion. With some parts of that Bill he agreed, and with other parts he disagreed. He made a speech at the bar of the House, in which he referred to, the parts of the Bill which he described as the teeth of the Bill, and asked that the teeth should be drawn. We listened to his advice and we agreed to withdraw those parts which he considered objectionable until the Native people had time to consider the whole question. The Government thought that time should be given for deliberation, and that this question should be discussed amongst the Natives themselves before we proceeded finally to legislation. The Bill finally passed in its present form, and deals with four and a half millions of acres of land, going up to Te Awamutu, and going down as far as Wanganui. The object of this Act is to prevent private dealings in that land, to prevent private parties from going behind the actual owners and acquiring the territory in order to enrich themselves from the contemplated approach of the railway. The position is this : That land cannot be touched by private individuals, or until the Native people themselves desire that it should be dealt with. I listened with great pleasure to the clear speech that was made by Mr. Ormsby, also to those made by others, and I shall deal with Mr. Ormsby's speech point by point, for it seems to have dealt with the whole question. He has referred to two things which he says are attended with some amount of danger to the people, viz., the Land Court and the roads. With some of his