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No. 140. Sik,— Karotonga, Cook Islands, sth February, 1904. In accordance with the instructions contained in your letter No. 184, I have now the ] honour to forward enclosed a plan and description of the house I propose to build for Mr. Large at Mangaia. Mr. Connal estimates the cost at £400, but as the cost at Mangaia may exceed that of Rarotonga by reason of greater difficulty in obtaining material for cement, I will estimate the cost at £450. You will notice that the plan contains a Court-room, which may also be used when required for a landing-store, and in this way save damage to perishable articles in wet weather, since it is my intention to build as near the landing-place as possible. The Courthouse on the hill is claimed by Miringatangi, and for this reason I am altogether against trying to obtain possession of it, since it is not advisable that there should be any cause of dispute between this man and the Government. It is not expedient, moreover, that any Government building should be built on the hill above the real township, for the Resident Agent's offices should be in the midst of his work. I expect the schooner back from Maiden Island about the middle of March, and I will then proceed to Mangaia and select a site for the house. In sending me the authority to commence the doctor's house it would be as well to send us from 10 to 15 tons of Auckland cement by the Union Company's steamer, so that we might get in the foundations and have the work well in hand before the end of the financial year; but an arrangement would be necessary with the company or they will charge £2 per ton freight. I have, &c, W. E. Gudgeon, Resident Commissioner. The Hon. C. H. Mills, Minister for the Islands, Wellington, N.Z.

No. 134.

No. 141. Sir, — Rarotonga, Cook Islands, sth February, 1904. In reply to your letter No. 196 concerning Ordinance No. 12, 1903, I have the honour to inform you that I have issued the Ordinance in question, for it was much wanted. I do not think that the additional clauses will be required at present, but if they are 1 will have a supplementary Ordinance passed. I need hardly say that the circumstances of these Islands in matters educational differ greatly from New Zealand, and what we seek to deal with are the children who never do attend the school and whose parents take no interest in them. I have, &c, W. E. Gudgeon, Resident Commissioner. The Hon. C. H. Mills, Minister for the Islands, Wellington.

No. 130.

No. 142. Sir, — Rarotonga, Cook Islands, sth February, 1904. In reply to your letter No. 173, of the 21st December, I have the honour to report that both Daniela and Miringatangi have been troublesome men at all times, and the very enigmatical letter written by these men means nothing either one way or the other; at the same time I quite understand that they are alarmed at a paragraph in my letter in which I refer to their consistent unfriendliness to Europeans. Your reply to that letter is, however, of importance, and it will prevent any further trouble. I will not appoint Ataa for some time as it will not be necessary to do so. The Arikis' Courts are a survival from the old times. Each independent section has a Court of its own in which the laws are interpreted as the Judge thinks fit, and hence the appeal to you against Miringatangi in Mangaia, he being a notoriously oppressive Judge. The judges of these Courts were in most cases appointed by the Arikis and missionaries, and heard all the cases, whether civil or criminal, of their district. Since 1899 their powers have been restrained and defined by the island statutes, but on the outlying islands they take but little notice of the statutes, and I have frequent appeals from the outrageous decisions given. I do not think that there is any institution in the Cook Islands that better deserves abolition than the Arikis' Court In Aitutaki I succeeded in abolishing that Court by the Statute of Aitutaki in 1899, but the other islands I could not touch. In Mangaia and Rarotonga there should be a Magistrate's Court as soon as possible, but in Mauke, Mitiaro, and Atiu we cannot establish a Court until we are in a position to pa) . Resident Agents in those islands. In Rarotonga, Makea and Pa are the Judges of the Court, and were it not that there is great jealousy between the chiefs I would suggest Pa as a man who would make an excellent Magistrate. As it is I fear to recommend this step for the heartburnings would be too great, and therefore the Magistrate must be a European. I have, <fee., W. E. Gudgeon, The Hon. C. H. Mills, Minister for the Islands. Resident Commissioner.

No. 121,

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