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No. 1. Sir, — Government House, Wellington, 14th January, 1901. I have the honour to forward for your information typewritten copy of the laws of Niue or Savage Island, supplied to His Excellency the Governor by F. B. Lawes, of Alofi, dated 30th October, 1900. Under same cover I beg to enclose eight copies of the map of Niue or Savage Island. I have, &c, James Prendergast, Colonel Gudgeon, British Besident, Cook Islands. Deputy Governor.

Enclosures. Sir,— Niue, Ist November, 1900. In compliance with the request of Your Excellency, I have translated into English the Niue laws as far as they have been assented to by the chiefs and signed by the King. Some others decided upon by representative chiefs have not yet been submitted to the general Fono (council); these I have not translated. The accompanying laws were not written until 1875, but had then for the most part been in force for years. We helped in putting them into form, but none of them were creations of the missionary. Mr. Basil Thomson left a few laws, which Your Excellency will readily recognise. These, with a few slight alterations, were accepted by the patus. The punishment for fornication has been considerably modified, but in any form it is one-sided and pernicious. Adultery, or, as Niueans call it, " wife-stealing," is the most prevalent and serious offence that Niue Magistrates have to deal with. In 1881 a man was murdered by a former friend who suspected him of having committed adultery with his wife. Peace is thus constantly endangered by jealousy. The penalty for murder is not in the above code, but the law written on the heart is blood for blood, life for life. The land laws are wholly native; my only work has been in trying to abridge them, in which I have only partially succeeded. The enclosed list of Kings would not, I think, go back farther than the middle of the eighteenth century. The covenant entered into with the King at his coronation is a mild expression of the views of the old men who appointed and made the first of the present order of Kings. The form was received by them and concluded by a sentence of more force and point than it; but as this sentence was not, I think, read out to King Tongia I have not sent it. In troubling Your Excellency with so much written matter I hope that I have not exceeded your request for information, and that some items will be useful. Since the H.B.M.S. " Mildura " left the Maiden Island ship has taken sixty more labourers to work guano, and I believe the Pacific Islands Company's steamer is expected to take a larger party, not of men, for few men remain, but growing boys, who are often permanently injured, if they do not quite break down under the continuous labour, for which they are physically unfitted. I quite forgot to ask Your Excellency about marriages. We are authorised by the High Commissioner of the Western Pacific to marry British residents should any need arise, which is very unlikely. But Englishmen sometimes wish to marry Niue women. Two young men have lately married Niue women. They would not come to me to be legally married, but were just married as Niueans by a Niue pastor. I should be glad to know what we are to do in the future in such cases. I am afraid that I did not clearly convey to Your Excellency the King's wish that the gentleman appointed as " Governor" of Niue be a married man. In this the King and his people are unanimous. They are also very desirous of having a man direct from Peritania or the colonies, not from the islands. The work, at the beginning at least, will be difficult. Niue needs a really good man, for whom, unfortunately, the salary will not be large. We shall always esteem it both a duty and pleasure to give any help that we can. I am, &c, Lord Banfurly, K.C.M.G., F. E. Lawes. Governor and Commander-in-Chief of New Zealand and its Dependencies.

Kings op Niue (from some Time in 1700 to about the End of Century). Fakahinaiki. Punimata. Died a natural death. After an interval, Ihuga ; a brave warrior. Killed. Patuanalu. Died of old age. Galiaga. Killed. Fokimata. Killed. Pakieto. Died in time of famine, about the end of the eighteenth century or beginning of 1800. New Order of Kings. Tuitonga : 2nd March, 1876. Died 13th July, 1887. Tataaiki: 21st November, 1888. Died 15th December, 1896. Tongia: 30th June, 1898.

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