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No. 158. Cook and other Islands Administration, Wellington, SIR,— 19th March, 1904. Referring to your letter of the 31st March last recommending that the lagoons at Penrhyu and Manihiki should be declared to be the property of His Majesty and set aside as reserves for pearl-shell fishing, I now beg to enclose a draft Proclamation in respect of each island which I have had prepared by the Solicitor-General. You will notice that they are drafted to some extent on the lines of your letter,, but the Solicitor-General states that before the matter can be finally settled a description of each island will be needed, and that the details of the conditions for management of each reserve should be ascertained with more particularity than is given in your letter. I shall be glad, therefore, if you will complete these drafts by supplying particulars for the schedule, and adding to the details of the condition anything that you think may help towards the successful administration of the reserves. The Attorney-General is of opinion that, notwithstanding these proclamations, questions may still arise as to the rights of the Natives respecting pearl-shell fishing and taking turtle, and he recommends that an Act be passed next session to place the matter on a perfectly satisfactory basis. I will accordingly take steps to have this done. I have, &c, The Resident Commissioner, Rarotonga. C. H. Mills.

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No. 159. Education Department, Wellington, 19th March, 1904. Memorandum for Hon. C. H. Mills. In reference to the question of education in the Cook and other islands, which was the subject of our conversation yesterday, I have the honour to set forth what appear to me to be the chief points to be considered before a solution is arrived at. 1. What language is to be used in the schools: At present, as far as I can gather, both English and Maori are used, although I find that " The Public Schools Act, 1895," passed by the Arikis of Rarotonga, prescribes that " The English language shall be used in teaching in the schools "; and this agrees with the stead) r policy adopted in the Maori village schools in New Zealand, it being recognised that one of the most potent factors in raising the Maoris to an English standard of living will be teaching them the use of English speech and English books and newspapers. The use of the two languages in a school does not, under ordinary circumstances, tend to efficiency. 2. I assume, therefore, the use of English in the schools. This necessarily implies teachers who can speak English well. These must either be British-born teachers or Maoris trained for several years where English is spoken. English teachers, with a sprinkling of English-speaking Maoris, would, I am inclined to think, be the most satisfactory; but the plan would be more expensive than the employment of Native teachers. The latter would, however, have to be trained, and it would take several years to produce sufficient trained teachers to supply all the schools which would be needed in the Islands. We might get a few who had been through Te Aute, St. Stephen's, or Hukarere, who would help to bridge over the interval; but I am, on the whole, inclined to think that it would be well to fill the positions in the interim with English teachers, or to postpone the opening of the new schools until trained Native teachers are available, especially us in some parts of the Group the Natives do not yet seem anxious to send their children to school regularly. (Some of those who have been pupils at the Tereora School may be trained well enough for the work.) The question is, what teachers are to be employed (1) now, (2) eventually? 3. If Natives are to be employed eventually, their training ought to be begun at once. The training could be given them by sending them for four or five years to, say, one or other of the higher schools for the education of Maoris in New Zealand; but such a plan might not be altogether satisfactory to the Islanders, and would cost probably three or four times as much as training them at the Tereora School, modified, as it would probably have to be, to serve more fully the purpose of a training-college as well as that of a school. A well-qualified master and mistress would probabaly be a sufficient English staff; and it would tend to real economy to give fairly good salaries to them, to make sure that the Native teachers were really well trained. 4. The control of the schools is a question of policy, but it is an important one. Secular teaching during, say, four hours a day would not be inconsistent with the use of the schools for religious instruction out of school-hours by the denominations represented on the Islands. Government control would imply that the whole cost was borne by the Government, or by the Government and the people locally. 5. The question of cost —involving erection and maintenance of buildings, payment of salaries of teachers, apparatus and school books, and material —is another aspect of the question to be considered. Probably a solution might be found by requiring the people of each locality to provide the buildings and keep them in order, the Government paying all or.her expenses, say, at the rate of £2 a head if the teachers are Natives, and at the rate of £4 a head if the teachers are European. I feel so much the small amount of information available to enable me to form a judgment with any confidence that 1 venture to suggest that it would be well to exercise caution in any steps that may be taken ; indeed, I am not at all sure that the wisest thing to do might not be to send some one with experience in Maori-school matters, such as Mr. Pope, if his health were good enough to enable him to go, to inquire into the conditions of the problem on the spot and report to the Government. I have, however, full confidence in saying that a mistake could not well be made if, in the first instance, steps were taken to train up a body of English-speaking Natives to teach their fellowcountrymen . G. HOGBBN.

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