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Baniera te Heuheu, of Te Wairoa, said : Welcome, Mr. Ballance, and all your companions. I am very grateful to you for your patience in waiting here while this meeting has been going on. I met you last year at the Native meeting at Gisborne, and remember your words on that occasion. The words you then spoke brought gladness to our hearts. I came here to represent the Natives of my district, to act on their behalf in discussing your Bill. There will be a number of meetings held in my district during the present year, at Wairoa and Gisborne; and, as this will be a great season for birds, I ask that we may be permitted to buy more ammunition than is at present allowed. The reason that I make this request now is that these meetings that I speak of are depending for food upon obtaining birds. The meetings will be called for the purpose of building churches and meeting-houses. Hori tc Tuki, from Wairarapa: I wish long life to the Queen, to the Parliaments of New Zealand and England, I wish prosperity and health to Mr. Stout, the Premier of New Zealand, and to you, Mr. Ballance, and also to your companions. I express these wishes to you on account of tho great love and consideration you have shown to the Maori people. You have given many proofs of your kindly feelings towards us. Even if you and your Government should hereafter be defeated, what will it matter ? You have done your duty, what you thought was best for us. We shall thank you for your intentions, even if you do not accomplish what you are attempting. I came here to represent my people at this meeting, and to discuss the provisions of the Bill you have distributed amongst us. A song in honour of the Native Minister was here sung. Wi Peivhairangi, of Tolago Bay : I greet you, Mr. Ballance. I come from the twelve districts of Ngatiporou. lam the representative of the people living on the East Coast. I was deputed by them to attend this meeting. I thank you for coming here and waiting in the most patient manner day after day. Seeing that you have visited most of the centres of Maori population, I hope you will visit the people of Waiapu and the adjacent settlements, so that all our little children and old men and women may have an opportunity of seeing you. I am glad that you have the welfare of the Natives thoroughly at heart, and I hope that you will take charge of the petitions and all the grievances that we send to Parliament, and that you will be supported in ventilating our grievances by the four Native members. And if your Government go out of office we shall always be able to look back and see that they have done their best for the Maori people. God save the Queen! Anaru te KahaJci, of Waiapu : I greet you, Mr. Ballance, and your associates. Your having come to see us is a proof of your kindly feeling towards us ; you have made yourself one with us in coming here and meeting us day after day and listening to what we have to say. I shall be able to go back to my own people and tell them what you have said to us. Your friends, the Native chiefs of this district, invited me to come here. I now ask that you will come and visit Waiapu and the East Coast, so that the people in those distant places may meet you. I hope that you and your colleagues will be strong in doing what you think is best for the Native people. I shall give you all the encouragement in my power in your endeavour to advance us. Long life to you and your colleagues, and to the Queen. Hoani Meihana te Bangiotu, of Palmerston : I want to express my sense of pleasure at having met all the Native chiefs here. I look upon this meeting as a thoroughly representative one, as it comprises delegates from all the tribes. I greet you, the Native Minister, and also the Undersecretary, Mr. Lewis. It is very good of you to come and listen to what we have to say. It is for you to deal as you think best with the resolutions arrived at by this meeting. We will state shortly what has been done, and it will be for you to reply and say what you think about our efforts. You are the first Native Minister who has treated us in the same way as Sir Donald McLean, who, no matter how he was engaged, would lay aside his other work and go and see the Natives ; and I hope you will consider it right to go about all over the Island and see the Natives. If you do this it will be a proof of your having their welfare really at heart. lam now going to sing you a song. [Song.] Hirini Taiivhanga, from the Bay of Islands : I thank you very heartily for having come here to see us_ There are two reasons which induce me to stand up now—first, I ask you to support very stro ngly the Bill a copy of which I gave you yesterday, because before the next session of Parliament I am going to submit it to a lawyer, and have it drafted ready to be brought before Parliament. I shall place it in the hands of members of Parliament; and I hope, Sir, that, if you have any love for the people of this Island, you will strongly support my Bill. The second matter to which I wish to allude is this: I hold in my hand a letter from the King Natives asking that you, Sir, will write a letter to Mr. Grace, and to the Natives associated with him, asking him to cease from making the survey. This letter also asks that you will communicate with the Europeans who are about to prospect in the King country, telling them to stop their operations. I said yesterday that I came here as a representative of Ngapuhi, and also of the Natives living in the district from which this letter has been sent. I support the request contained in this letter — namely, that the survey which Mr. Grace is making may be stopped, and also the prospecting for gold. Let that remain in abeyance until some good law has been passed which will be for the benefit of Natives and Europeans alike, because during the past years, down to the present time, We have had nothing but trouble. It is on account of past troubles that we are all the more urgent that some good law should now be passed which will do away with all the troubles that ever came upon us, and provide for all future troubles. Henare Tcmwana : I desire to thank you, Mr. Ballance, for the great patience you have displayed in waiting for us during the time this meeting has been progressing. I thank you on behalf of the representatives who have come to this meeting from their respective tribes. The people assembled here are representatives of the various tribes of New Zealand who are living under and acknowledging the laws of the Queen. None of these people are living outside the law of the Queen, and those who come after them will continue to live under and uphold the law. I shall allude now to what