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all thought he was quite right, for they were of the party that wish to give your country to New Zealand. Now, why do I mention this to you ? It is in order that you may see how little those people know or care about the Fijians. As, of course, you all know, the villages that have been supplied with water do not lie on the banks of the Eewa, but are, many of them, many miles distant from the Eewa. But what should people who wish to give your country away care about that, or care about you ? In those distant villages Fijian men, or women, or children might be lying sick, or might be even dying, and what about them ? Well, the New Zealand party has said that the Eewa water is good enough for them ; so I suppose that if they are parched with thirst they ought to get up, if they can, and walk miles to the Eewa to find brackish water to quench it. 5. That, I think, will show you pretty clearly how much the New Zealand party care about you and your welfare. They pretend to be your friends, I know, and they have their own purpose to serve by doing so. But I will tell you one thing, and that is this : When persons who have never during all their lives done a single thing to benefit you all of a sudden appear to become very fond of you, and say to you they will do you all manner of good if you will only listen to their advice, you will do very well to ask yourself the question, " What is it that we have got that these persons want to get from us ? " 6. If the chiefs and the more intelligent amongst you ask yourselves the question, What has this New Zealand party got to gain from us ? you will not have to wait very long before you see the answer. You have the land, my friends, and that is what they want to get, and hope that they will get if you are foolish enough to listen to them. It has always been the same in every country under the kind of Government that there is in New Zealand—the white men have always taken the land from the coloured owners. It has been so in New Zealand, where the land once all belonged to the coloured people. Who owns that land now ? The white people have got nearly the whole of it. The coloured people are cooped up in the fragment of land that has been left to them, and many of them have no land at all. 7. What has happened in New Zealand to the coloured people's land will happen here, too, if New Zealand gets this country. But you have been told that if New Zealand gets this country the natives will not have to pay native taxes. Of course, the persons who have told you this have done so to tempt you to listen to them, in order that, if you are foolish enough, you may think it a good thing that New Zealand should get this country. Therefore they tell you that if you were under the New Zealand Government you would not have to pay native taxes. But they do not tell you that if you paid no native taxes you would, like the coloured people in New Zealand, lose nearly all your land. 8. For what, after all, are those so-called native taxes that you have to pay ? I will tell you. They amount to less than £1 a head a year for each adult male, and they are the rent which the Fijian people pay for the lands that they are not actually cultivating. Under the Act of Cession, by which the father of Eoko Tui Tailevu, and the other great chiefs of Fiji, on behalf of themselves and their several tribes, made over the country to Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, it was agreed that the Fijians should keep the lands they were cultivating, and that all the rest should belong to Government. But when it was found that this did not please the chiefs and people, the Government allowed them to have all the unoccupied lands, and in return got from them the small rent which is known by the name of native taxes. So you see, if you were to cease to pay that rent you would also cease to own those lands, and they would be taken from you, as the lands have been taken from the owners in New Zealand and other countries that are under the same kind of government. And what you have to think of is this : Would you rather go on paying your rent to this Government under the Queen, or have your rent remitted by the New Zealand Government, and lose your lands ? 9. I know what your answer is : You would rather pay your rent and keep your lands. Well, I will do what I can for you, by writing to Her Majesty the Queen, so that this country may not go to New Zealand, and that you may keep your lands. But when I tell you this I tell you also at the same time that you are all to keep very quiet, and to give no sort of trouble. If any of you were to give trouble, that would only make it easy for New Zealand to get your country, and for you to lose your lands. What there is to be said on your behalf I have already said to the Queen, and shall, if necessary, say it again. But, in the meanwhile, I repeat to you and 1 charge you all to remain quiet and peaceable, and to give no trouble either to white men or to any others, but to go about your own business and attend to your own affairs just as if you had never heard any question of New Zealand wanting to get this country. That is what you have got to do, and I, as your principal and head Chief, order you to do it. 10. And now, my friends, a word or two more about this Hospital. Hospitals have—l know not why—been sometimes called " the houses of death." This is very wrong. People may die in any kind of house, and they may sometimes die even in a hospital. But in a hospital such as this, many who would die in their own houses will be saved from death, and many who are sick will be made well. So this Hospital, and the other hospitals which are being built for the Fijians, will in future be known as " the houses of life." And I hope that all who may be sick in these provinces will freely come to this Hospital. They will find here a very clever and a very kind gentleman, Dr. Withington, who will do all he can to cure them, and they will always meet here with every possible kindness and good treatment. I have great pleasure now in declaring this Hospital open, and in expressing my assured conviction that it will be the means under Almighty God of much blessing to the people for whom it has been built. The address, which was delivered in English and interpreted by the Hon. W. L. Allardyce, losing none of its force or effect in the translation, was received with much applause, and a short epistle was presented and read, thanking the Governor for water-supply, hospital, &c.