A.—s

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Plot No. 1. —Ground on which dwelling-house stands, extending in front about 12 yards, at the back about 16 yards, and bounded at each end by road. Purchased from Mavaraiko for shirt, hatchet, knife, and pocket-handkerchief. Plot No. 2. —Ground in front of house extending down to the sea. Bounded by road on eastern side, by Plot No. 3 on western. Purchased from Rupatele for hatchet, shirt, knife, and handkerchief. Plot No. 3. —Ground on western side of Rupatele's. Bounded on west side by Elivara Eoad, extending to the sea at the bottom and to dwelling-house at top. Bought of Putaitai for a woman's dress, a hatchet, and a knife. Plot No. 4. —Ground on which Niue's (teacher's) house stands, extending to the sea at bottom, to house and about yards beyond at back, extending as far as cocoanuts on east side and to road on west side. Bought of Touakavera for two shirts, two hatchets, and four pocket-hand-kerchiefs. Plot No. s. —Ground on west side of dwelling-house, extending nearly to top of hill, forward as far as Elivara Eoad, and inland as far as boundary-mark. Bought of Huakonia for a shirt, woman's dress, hatchet, and knife. Thos. Suckling, Lieutenant Commander, H.M.S. " Eenard." Leslie C. Stewabt, Sub-Lieutenant, H.M.S. "Eenard." S. McFaelane. J. Thukston, Master s.s. " Ellengowan." Heney Smithhubst, Engineer s.s. " Ellengowan." Euatoka, Earotongan Teacher.

APPENDIX D. Memorandum on Native Policy in Hee Majesty's Peotected Tebbitoky op New Guinea. In compliance with your Excellency's wish, I have the honour to state as follows respecting the native policy and events in this Protectorate from June of last year to this date (October, 1886). In the above period of sixteen months (for three of which—March, April, and May last—l was engaged on official duty with your Excellency in Australia) the late Special Commissioner spent three months (31st August to 29th November, 1885) in cruising in these waters, visiting various points, and collecting information as to the existing state of the country. His untimely illness and death on the 2nd December prevented him writing a general report, as he had intended, and the compilation and printing of his notes and memoranda were subsequently effected by his Private Secretary, Mr. G-. Seymour Eort. This account of the cruise of the s.s. " Governor Blackall " was published by the courtesy of the Governor of Victoria in March last, and it has been read with interest, as lam aware, by your Excellency. It describes the villages visited, and other native matters with which Sir Peter Scratchley dealt. There is no occasion for me to comment especially on the views expressed in the above report. The late Special Commissioner's opinions and projects regarding British New Guinea were avowedly of a tentative character, and some of those referring to a future native policy and control would, I believe, have been widely modified, if not abandoned, had he lived to gain a closer and larger experience of our aboriginal population. To endeavour to frame and pursue such a policy, for instance, as that signified in the statement, " New Guinea must be governed for the natives and by the natives," would, I consider, be a costly and chimerical experiment in colonial organization, inevitably resulting in failure. It could not retard indefinitely the natural and progressive influences of civilisation. Our aborigines are savages in the first stages of barbarism, swayed by intense and degrading superstitions which involve them in ceaseless intertribal feuds and bloodshed, and the first really important protection that the natives require in British New Guinea is from each other. From one end of our territory to the other a chronic state of intertribal hostility prevails, and I much doubt if a day passes in the year without a murder or massacre (often of women and children) taking place in some district. No real tribal discipline or organization exists, and to "govern by the natives" is a sheer impossibility; but I propose to treat this point more fully hereafter. I regret that there are also some other points in Mr. Fort's compilation with which my own views do not agree. 2. Mr. Deputy-Commissioner Eomilly visited this coast in the s.s. "Victoria" (17th June to 12th July, 1885), when the Queensland Government returned the islanders held to be kidnapped from our Eastern Archipelago. He returned to Queensland on the latter date, and accompanied the late Special Commissioner on the arrival of the latter here on the 28th August last. Compelled to leave again for the Australian coast in the middle of October owing to severe fever, he has not since been in these waters. Neither from the late Special Commissioner nor from Mr. Eomilly (while Acting Special Commissioner for three months) did I receive any instructions or suggestions whatever as to a native policy, or my own position in relation to the natives. Such measures as I was constrained in the interests of peace and security to life and property to adopt were undertaken with the gravest sense of responsibility for want of proper authority. It was so important for future administrative control, however, that the natives should at once begin to look towards a central authority for advice and friendly dictation, that I felt bound to interest myself and take action in several matters not, strictly speaking, within my powers. I was fortunate, nevertheless, in receiving the full approval of Sir Peter Scratchley for the opinions and actions which I brought to his notice. 3. On my arrival here on the 17th June last year, in the s.s. " Victoria," I held a commission as Assistant Deputy-Commissioner. The powers it conferred were limited to action upon instruc-