A.—3b

8

(4.) An Act preventing private dealings (in land) gives them secure possession of their lands, and insures a just price. Government alone buys Maori land. (5.) The Maoris are free. (6.) The Maoris enjoy the benefit of free education. (7.) The Maoris do no unpaid forced labour on roads and public works. (8.) The Maoris are not enmeshed in fussy irritating legislation. (9.) The Maoris do not suffer from a plague of English and native officials. I conclude, therefore, that the Fijian natives have nothing to lose, but a great deal to gain, from a Federation that would free them from a Government whose hand is as übiquitously heavy as that of the present Crown colony, and whose expensiveness leads to the reversal of the principles on which equitable taxation is based, and causes the heaviest burden to fall on the poor. It would be worth while to work for Federation, if only as a way of obtaining opportunities for the discussion of native affairs, and of escape from the truculent discourtesy that seems always to have been, as it is now, the predominant feature of Crown Colony Governments.

By Authority : John Mackay, Government Printer, Wellington.—l9oo.