11

A.—s

Mr. Taylor : Exactly. It was never made clear to them that they were nominated. These men were originally elected. They were renominated under the Cook Islands Act, but it is only the other day that the Act was translated. The members of the Council, if they do not agree with the Resident Commissioner, are kicked out. Two have been knocked out recently. Hon. Sir James Allen : Who nominates these members ? Mr. Taylor : Under the Cook Islands Act you can appoint twelve Chinamen to the Island Council. Mr. Platts : No Chinamen are admitted here. Mr. Taylor : These two men spoke up. They disagreed with the Commissioner on many points, and the result is that they are now out of the Council. Hon. Sir James Allen : I do not think it is wise to let this statement go—this statement that a Chinaman can be appointed to the Council. As I understand it, the only persons who can be nominated to the Island Council are Natives or half-castes. A white cannot be nominated just now. And the nomination is on the recommendation of the Arikis. They met their people and discussed with them who was to be nominated, and they sent the name in. Mr. Taylor : I think you will find that the Governor-General can appoint whoever he likes to the Council, whether Europeans, or Maoris, or half-castes. When the question of members being elected was raised the Arikis were asked, " Which of you are going to give up your seats for Europeans? " The Commissioner went to New Zealand about two years ago. At that time he was bad friends with everybody, Native and European. The Natives sent a petition to New Zealand asking to have him kept there. Mr. Mitchell has a photograph of the petition. Mr. Platts came back, and ever since that time there has been this feeling between Native and European. We are no good, according to the Commissioner. Mr. Platts : I have never said any such thing. Mr. Taylor : There have been letters written in the newspaper Press—one by Mr. Charles C. Smith. This appeared in the Evening Post, and in it Mr. Smith called the Europeans here beachcombers, dregs of humanity, half-kanakas, and sundry other names. He was employed by the Administration for six weeks, and I think he drew something like £38 by way of remuneration. I have here a document, something like twenty-nine years old, signed by Frederick J. Moss, who was then Resident Commissioner. It is the document in which Queen Victoria asked the Native people to hand their islands over. I have not been able to get it translated. In conclusion I can only emphasize that we all wish for a full and open inquiry, the evidence to be taken on oath. Mr. Russell (planter) stated: I understood you to say a little while ago, sir, that the .Natives here were hostile to having Europeans on their Council. I would ask you to go back to 1009, when the Council here passed a unanimous vote that there should be a European member on the Council. Hon. Sir James Allen : We have heard that, and we also have heard from the Arikis to-day that their present feeling is that they do not want any white man on the Council. Mr. Russell : The question should be investigated as to what sort of influence has been brought to bear on them, and by Whom, to change their opinion, because they have expressed this wish on no less than three occasions to my knowledge. Hon. Sir James Allen : We have only heard of one occasion. Mr. Russell : The first occasion was, I believe, in 1909. It is on record in the Cook Islands Report. Sir James Carroll, who was then Minister for the Islands, was in favour of it. Then, in 1918 the Arikis and members of the Council came to the same decision. Their wishes were again defeated not by the hostility of the Natives, but by some influence which was brought to bear on them by the Administrator. They came to this decision at a private meeting at which the Resident Commissioner was not present. A resolution embodying their wishes was drawn up at that meeting, and it was ultimately brought before the Council in the presence of the Commissioner. It was " turned down." Hon. Sir James Allen: By whom —by the Council ? Mr. Russell :By the Council. That also is a matter which should be investigated. Another point is that two members of our Council have lately been kicked out —informed that their services are no longer desired. I mean Mr. W. Browne and Te Ariki Maurangi. There is a very strongsuspicion that they have been relegated to the dust-heap because they were very strong supporters of a resolution for the reform of the Council. I do not think they have had a fair deal. It is a matter that is going to cause a lot of ill-feeling in the Native mind. Mr. W. P- Browne (planter) stated : 1 wish to bring up three matters which are of importance for the welfare of these islands—the mail-steamer service, the Island Council, and the fruit business. We have nothing to complain of regarding our fruit in the way of space, although we have been cut down several times. We cannot help it. Where the shoe pinches is between here and Frisco. When the mail-steamer gets here we want space for so-many hundred tons of coconuts, and we are informed that there is no space available. The steamer then goes to Tahiti and picks up several hundred tons. We are left out. I want to know why? The steamer is subsidized by the New Zealand Government, yet we get no benefit. Copra has been in the sheds on the wharf for about eighteen months and cannot be shipped to Frisco, yet the Government subsidizes these vessels. We would urge that in the next contract with the Union Company a stipulation be made that a certain amount of space should be kept for the Cook Islands between here and Frisco. Between here and New Zealand we are all right, in regard to the fruit, I may say that I am a planter of fifteen years' experience, and am one of the biggest planters on the island. I shipped last year something like eighteen hundred boxes of tomatoes from my own plantation, about seventeen hundred boxes of bananas, and four hundred boxes of oranges. I