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land. That although the Committees may be appointed or elected to deal with the various blocks, still they will not be in a position to deal with Native matters generally. At the time when troubles first commenced—that is to say, when the fighting commenced on this Island— former Governments gave large powers to the chiefs, and they' were able to carry out the government of the country satisfactorily. The late Sir Donald McLean and the various Civil Commissioners were the friends who worked with those Native chiefs. The arbitration about land disputes, and about boundaries, and about quarrels, were settled satisfactorily. Subsequent Governments took back the authority from those people, and retained it in the hands of the Europeans. Trouble then commenced, which has gone on increasing up to the time of Mr. Bryce's Government. It is the wish of the owners that the land should be made a source of profit. As they have not power to administer it, nothing can be done with it for their benefit; and if the Government will give extended self-government to the Natives, I think that great good will result to the Natives, to the Europeans, and to the colony generally. That is all I have to say with regard to that subject. We ask that the Government will assist us to call a great meeting of all the chiefs, that they should assemble here and discuss various matters which will then be referred to the Government. We believe, if the Minister could meet the Native chiefs face to face and discuss various matters, that great benefits would result. The drawback at present is the jealousy existing between ourselves—the want of unanimity. I will refer to another subject—that is, the railway. This railway was a subject of discussion between the company and Ngatiwhakaue. The company asked Ngatiwhakaue to give up fifty thousand acres as an endowment for the railway :if they did that, then the company would make the railway, and the Maoris would have shares in the railway of the company, and various other proposals were made. When the Government heard of this proposal the Ministers were very angry indeed about it; and the Native Committee upheld the Ministers in their opposition to this proposal, because they considered that the direction of the land has been given over to the Ministers. The Native Committee then said, "Yes; your objection to this plan is a just one. You take the railway under your own management, and make it." The Government replied, "That is good; we will accept that proposal;" but the Ministers said, "You must give up sufficient land for the railway—that is, for the track of the railway—and sufficient land to make the railway-stations. ' We agreed to that unanimously. We also asked that there should be no delay; and the Ministers replied, " Yes, the railway shall be made speedily." Before a year had elapsed the same Ministers returned and told us that the township was not a Government township at all, that the benefits of that township would be received by the Maoris only, and they said, " You must give us land for the railway." We agreed to that proposal, and said, "How much land do you require?" The Government land-purchase officers said, "Let Ngatiwhakaue give twenty thousand acres." Ngatiwhakaue were rather staggered by this request, because they considered that they have only a small quantity of land, and that twenty thousand acres is out of proportion; they could not afford to part with that amount. But the old people and chiefs of the tribe were strenuous in saying that the land should be given. The young people of the tribe said, "Well, we will give ten thousand acres and sell ten thousand acres, because the ultimate benefit of railways being made goes to the colony." The result was that twenty thousand acres were set apart—handed over to the Government. Now, with regard to your request to-day that the Arawas should give more land for the railway, are you making that demand to Ngatiwhakaue or the Arawas ? We wish to be clear upon that point. When the twenty thousand acres was handed over by Ngatiwhakaue they said, " Let the railway be made quickly;" and the reply was, "Yes, it will be made soon." Are you now asking them (Ngatiwhakaue) to give-more land ? Do you wish to take the whole of the balance which remains to them ? Or are you making this request to other people than the Ngatiwhakaue ? Ngatiwhakaue, including women and children, amount to six hundred Natives, and we have only thirty thousand acres of land left, and we cannot afford to part with any of that. Now, with regard to the surveys—with regard to our request that the Government in the first place should pay for the surveys, and whenever the land became a source of revenue, then we should return the Government money out of the first proceeds. We ask that the direction of the surveys should be given into the hands of the District Committees. We make that request on account of the troubles that are caused by surveys. If the direction of the surveys is left in the hands of the Native Committee everything will be clear, there wall be no quarrelling, and it will not then be in the power of any one individual to go and carry on a survey and make trouble. Another cause of trouble is about the money for the surveys. However, I will not speak at great length about the troubles that arise out of surveying the land, because they are matters that are well known to the Government. I will now speak with regard to the Thermal Springs Act. In our address to you wo asked that the Thermal Springs Act shall remain in force. The reason we make this request is that yours is a new Government. In asking the Government to retain that law in force, we wish that the terms of the Act shall be carried out with regard to the disposal of the land. If the land is to be sold or leased it must be done by public auction. This matter rests entirely with the Government, it lies in their hands; so that all the troubles which now rest on the laud, and all the troubles affecting this district, rest entirely with the Government. Any troubles that have arisen in the past, or that may arise in the future, rest with the Government; but when the Government give the land back absolutely to us to deal with, then we will know that the responsibility rests on ourselves alone. There will be further discussion about this subject afterwards. It would not be right to talk about it now, because there arc many people here who are not interested, and who should not be present. With regard to your expression that the time at your disposal is very short, it is the wish of this people that every man, great or small, may have an opportunity of expressing his views to you, because it is many years since the Arawa Tribe have had an opportunity of laying their matters before a Minister. They did not like to do so to Mr. Bryce when he was Native Minister. There were a number of people present at the meeting this morning. They were representatives from different tribes, living' at different places, who wore sent here to bring their matters before you. Ngatiwhakaue live at two large centres, at Ohine-