A.—4b.

ridiculous." As a fact, the number of in-patients for that year was 144 Europeans 688 Samoans, and 315 Chinese and Melanesians —in all, 1,147. Mr. Williams took only the number of European in-patients and treated the whole nursing staff of the hospital as having been exclusively employed nursing them. Audit. Complaint was made as to the inadequacy of the system of audit of the Treasury accounts. Careful regulations have been made by the Governor-General in Council pursuant to the Samoa Act, 1921, providing for the collection, expenditure, and control of the public revenues and the audit of the accounts of the Samoan Treasury. These regulations have been complied with. Apparently a local Auditor is employed, the Public Trustee —an officer of the Administration —who audits all subsidiary accounts and reports any irregularities which come under his notice to the Administrator, whose duty it is to forward the local Auditor's reports to his Minister. This is in fact done, and the reports are in practice, and under the regulations, available to the Government Auditor acting under the Controller and Auditor-General of New Zealand. The officer acting as local Auditor is, according to the tribute of counsel for the complainants, a gentleman of integrity. The Government Auditor is occupied for one month in each year in auditing the accounts of the Treasury and of the New Zealand Reparation Estates. Passengersteamers leave Auckland and Apia at monthly intervals, and thus a month is the period which can conveniently be given to an undertaking in Samoa. Counsel for the complainants submits that this period is insufficient, but this submission is wholly unsupported by evidence. It is merely a submission of counsel. It is sufficient for us to say that the system and method of auditing the accounts of the Samoan Treasury are under the control of the New Zealand Controller and Auditor-General, and he appears to be satisfied with the efficiency of the audit. No possible complaint against the Administrator or the Administration can be sustained on this head. PART 11. We now propose to deal with the complaints and charges relating to acts of the Administration with respect to Native affairs, and to the part directly or indirectly taken by Samoans in the government of the Territory. Social and Governing Customs Fa'a-samoa, and Comparisons with the Present System. In order to appreciate the evidence given by Samoans at the inquiry, and to understand and weigh the significance and value of circumstances disclosed by the evidence, it is essential to have some knowledge of the social system which obtained prior to the intervention of the European in Samoan affairs, and its bearing on the existing system. Events are looked at by the Samoan from an aspect and an angle of his own, created by his history, traditions, and environment. Some assistance ift understanding his point of view is obtainable from a general view of his system of life. The basis of the Samoan social system is the family—used in the wide sense. One or more families —all probably interrelated—occupy a village. If there are a great number of families in a settlement that settlement is designated a town, but the town does not radically differ from the village in the social and governing conditions which obtain. The social system may be loosely described as patriarchal with a kind of family communism. Each family had its own land, and the land and whatever property might exist outside of it were vested in the family. The control or power (pule) of the lands and property of the family were vested in the head or matai. He allocated the family lands for cultivation and controlled the distribution of the produce, and in more modern times the proceeds of the produce amongst the family. The office of matai is not necessarily hereditary; but the appointment to the office is made under circumstances which give a voice to members of the family who are not of the rank of matai, and are known as the young men (taulealea —plural taulelea).

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