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A.-3

No. 17. Mr. F. J. Moss to His Excellency the Governor. My Lord, British Besidency, Barotonga, 15th October, 1894. I have the honour to inform your Excellency that the Barotonga Council began its session on the 31st August, and has been in session till the present time, owing to frequent adjournments to 1 consult with their constituents. I have encouraged this practice as useful in itself, and as a substitute for "going into Committee" on the various measures for the Council's consideration. These measures are of a practical and useful kind, but have yet to pass the Council of Ankis before they are complete. I defer reporting upon them till then, but may specially refer to the resolution enclosed respecting the establishment of special settlers from New Zealand. There is no public land in Barotonga. All is privately owned, and time must be required to bring the matter to a successful issue ; but this may be regarded as a first step towards increasing the productions of the country. . I am glad to say that a desire for such increase, and for progress in other directions, has been strikingly evidenced in the proceedings of the present Council. A tax on all occupied land has been passed for making roads, and will, no doubt, receive the assent of the Arikis. The tax is to be paid according to the frontage, and will therefore fall with tolerable fairness on all. A more exact test as to ability to pay is, at present, impracticable. The revenue to be dealt with by the Council is not quite £700, but sufficient for immediate needs. The estimates are being keenly scrutinised, and the appropriations are not yet completed. Fruit for the New Zealand market, and coffee, are being planted somewhat extensively by the natives in the other islands, as well as in Barotonga. The absence of stimulating causes peculiar to Barotonga, with its central position, makes the other islands more backward ; but progress is none the less apparent in them, though in a less degree. I have, &c, Fbederick J. Moss, His. Excellency the Earl of Glasgow, G.C.M.G. British Besident. Governor of New Zealand.

Enclosures. Proposal fob advancing Babotonga. A LAEGE quantity of the best land in the island is now lying waste and idle. It could yield much valuable coffee and other saleable produce, but there are not people enough to use it. The remedy is to induce people to come from other countries. If this be done, the owners could lease the land to them, and obtain much money as rent for that from which they now derive very little, and Barotonga would flourish. If the owners of a sufficiently large block would agree to give that block for a special settlement, it might be cut up into sections of 10 to 20 acres each, and be made to produce a great quantity of Indian corn, and bananas, and other quick-growing fruit, till the coffee-trees planted upon it are old enough to bear and give good annual return. Those coffee-trees would be kept low and trimmed properly, and not be allowed to grow wild as they now do. The owners would then get much more coffee, and be able to pick it in at least one-fourth the time now required. The reason for having the land in one block is that the people on it may not require to fence against one another, as they would have to do if Maoris keeping pigs and animals were with them. Foreigners on that land would not keep more animals than they could feed without letting them run loose. The pigs would be kept in, and the horses or cows tethered, and the money for fencing could be used in paying men to help them in planting. The rent of the land ought to be very little for the first five years, while the coffee is growing; and the person who plants must be sure that he will not be turned off and some one else get the benefit. The tenure should therefore be a lease for five years (at, say, pence an acre), with a right to renew the lease for thirty years (at, say, shillings per acre), and a further right to renew the lease for another thirty years at a rent to be then fixed by arbitration as to the value of the land (without the crops or trees growing upon it) at that time. Eoads through the block for the public convenience should be marked off, and other details be considered, if the chief points are agreed to. They are : (1.) A sufficiently large block of land, of first quality, to be set aside for a ~ special settlement of ten or twenty families as a beginning. (2.) The land to be leased as above. (3.) Boads to be marked off through the land, and a limit put to the quantity that any one family can take, as the island is small, and the object is to get people as well as coffee and other productions. I have thought a good deal over the best way to advance Barotonga. The Government is now settled and working well. That being done, the next thing is to increase production, and have more people in the country. The above plan is that which seems to me the best; let the Council consider it well. Feedebick J. Moss, British Besident.

Besolution re Special Settlement. Besolved, That this Council considers that the time has come to form special settlements of people from New Zealand who might desire to be planters of coffee or other products on the lands lying unused in Barotonga. They recommend the subject to the Government (i.e., the Ankis) to take such measures as to the selection of the lands and the conditions of occupation and other