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Ordinance Issued, by the German Government, 15th February, 191,3, concerning the Sanitary Control of Sea-vessels in the Wafers of the Protectorate of Samoa. 3. The master or his representative has to lill up n question sheet according to enclosure 1 if the vessel comes from a harbour declared by the, Governor infected or suspected, or if there are cases of cholera, yellow fever, plague, smallpox, petechial fever, leprosy, scarlet, diphtheria, abdominal typhoid, measles, or cases which suspect such a disease on board, or if there be rat-plague on board, or has been there in the port of departure or during the journey, or if rats die in a suspicious way on board, or if they have been dying in the. port of departure or during the journey in such a way Captain Gillespie, Provost-Marshal and Commissioner of Police at Apia, stated that his predecessor worked under the Triparite regulations, and he continued doing so, and that subsequent to the 7th November, 1918, he got convictions under those regulations against four men on a charge of visiting a, ship quarantined in the harbour. On being recalled, he stated that since giving his evidence he had been informed that the German regulations had superseded the Tripartite regulations. The fact remains that the last-mentioned regulations had been used and acted on during the previous four years and a half. In connection with port regulations generally, we take this opportunity of stating that at Suva, on our way to Apia, three passengers for Samoa were permitted to tome on board the " Talune " from the quarantine island before the period of their isolation was completed and two days before they would have been allowed to land at Suva. Such a proceeding must sooner or later lead to serious consequences if it is persisted in. We therefore recommend that a new Samoan port regulation be, issued at once throwing the full responsibility on to the owners, agent, arid captain of any ship who either wilfully or negligently allows any passenger to come on board, their vessel from any quarantine-station, for any purpose whatever, before his or her period of isolation has expired. The " Talune " left Apia on her return journey to Auckland, via Vavau, Haapai, Nukualofa, and Suva, on Friday the Bth November, 1918 (Samoan time). Two days later, and at the first port of call --viz., Vavau —seventy out of the eighty-five Fijian labourers were suffering from influenza. Fifteen of them died after arrival at Suva and while in quarantine. Two soldiers who were returning to Auck'and. from Apia died after leaving Suva, and were buried at sea, while several passengers died after the steamer arrived at Auckland. QUESTION No. 3. — Whether the introduction and extension of the said epidemic was caused by any negligence or default on the part of any persons in the service of the Crown, 'whether in tespect of the Executive Government of New Zealand or in respect of the administration of the said Islands of Western Samoa. Dealing first with the introduction of influenza into Western Samoa :•■■ In view of the fact that influenza was epidemic in the City of Auckland prior to the departure of the "Talune." on the 30th October, 1918, some mention of it should in our opinion, have been endorsed on the bill of health handed to the ship, notwithstanding the fact that influenza was not a notifiable disease, as far as New Zealand was concerned, until the 6th November, 1918. We are strongly of opinion that Samoa should have been informed by wireless immediately influenza was, by regulation, made a notifiable disease in New Zealand ; and that the Public Health Department and [or] the Defence Department failed in its duty in ignoring the fact that New Zealand was, for the time being at least, responsible for the, welfare of the, inhabitants of these islands, both European and Native. On the 7th November, 1918 (Samoan time), New Zealand soldiers were garrisoning Upolu, and they subsequently suffered considerably from pneumonic influenza. At the same time we would point out that the British Government did not, according to evidence taken at Suva, inform the authorities there at any time prior to December, 1918, of the danger of this particular disease, and, according to evidence taken, at Pago Pago, the American Government did not advise the Administration there of the prevalence and seriousnesslof the disease in the United States of America. We have arrived at the, conclusion that an effort should be made by the Government of New Zealand to come to some reciprocal arrangement with all (or with as many as possible) of the civilized Powers throughout the world for immediate cable notification of any and every serious or partially serious disease