A. —4B

Police Department. —The figures here given by the committee are not fairly shown. The Police and Prisons Department in Samoa costs £7,750. For the same services in Fiji the cost is £26,484, not £10,057 as shown in the report. Department of Agriculture.—ln view of the importance of agriculture to the Samoan people, it is regretted that we do not spend more in this Department. One elected member previously recommended in the Legislative Council that this Department was practically unnecessary, and that the head of the police should control the Police, Chinese, and Agricultural Departments, thus showing how little the work of this Department is appreciated. Its efforts in connection with Native agricultural education alone justify the expenditure shown. Here again the figures are mis-stated : — Fiji. Samoa. £ £ Committee's figures .. .. .. .. .. 4,195 3,250 True figures .. .. .. .. .. .. 40,320 3,250 Chinese Department. —To show that the cost of administration in Fiji for 69,000 Indians is less than in Samoa for 890 Chinese coolies is an easy matter, but the reason for this appears to have been omitted by the committee. The Chinese coolies in this Territory are each and all actually administered, their employments arranged, and individual interests watched and protected by a Commissioner of Labour, who also does the same work for the few remaining Solomon Island labourers. In Fiji the Indians are free settlers, and are at liberty to undertake any private occupation as farmers, storekeepers, or any other business in competition with the rest of the community, and therefore no administration machinery exists in Fiji such as the Chinese Department in Samoa, nor is it necessary. The difficulties of obtaining labour from China are appreciated by very few outside the Administration, but these difficulties are chiefly overcome by the fact that the authorities in China are aware of the protection afforded to Chinese labourers engaged for work in Samoa. This is a protection which can only be given by a Department such as that we have in Western Samoa, and which is very economically administered. Post, Telegraph, and Radio.—The committee consider that " noSfurther economy is required in connection with these Departments." I differ from them in this matter. We are losing £1,000 per annum on the radio station, and proposals have been made to utilize the|hydro-electric scheme for Apia, when completed, to instal a new and more economical and equally efficient station in the town in order not only to cut out this loss, but to place the radio on a paying basis. Public Works Department.—The statement that £4,962, or half the sum of the Public Works vote, is spent in wages is another misleading statement, which ignores the fact that the emoluments for officials of the Works Department cover the cost of the extraordinary public works also, and, instead of representing half the expenditure, are equal for the year under review to only about one-eleventh. In none of the many estimates of other colonies I have examined can I find such a small expenditure for wages in proportion to the total spent on public works. Education Department.—The criticisms made against this Department are that— (1) Salaries are too high. (2) Headmaster of Avele is not certificated. (3) Next year Vaipouli School will be conducted by a master who only got his certificate last year. (4) Attendance at these schools is small, and does not warrant the expenditure. The salaries in Samoa differ very little from those in Fiji, where teachers other than those appointed in New Zealand all receive the annual bonus of 15 per cent., plus £22 10s. With reference to the criticism against the headmaster of Avele, the facts are that Mr. Williams has been in Samoa four years, and is one of our most successful teachers in dealing with Native boys. His work in making a really fine Native school with beautiful playgrounds and plantations where three years ago there was virgin bush is a model of good work which influences every school in Samoa. It has been my privilege to inspect the really wonderful transformation that has taken place at the Avele Agricultural School. 1 ask you this direct question : Have you or any one European on your committee taken the trouble to visit Avele to see what has been done before giving expression to this criticism ? As you know, the property is only 100 yards from the gates of " Vailima." We have one teacher with University degrees, but they are of little use to him in teaching Samoans, whose education is based on Samoan life, and not on conditions in New Zealand. How the committee know who is to be headmaster at Vaipouli next year I am unable to say, as the appointment has not yet been made. The average attendance at these schools is as under: Vaipouli, Avele, Malifa, 222; but these figures are no argument in favour of reducing the salaries of the teachers, who, in addition to school-work, have charge of plantations for growing food, and in two cases a small coconutplantation as well. These teachers are also used as Inspectors for certain areas where secondgrade Native schools are established. The Education Department in Fiji is shown as costing £28,462 ; the cost of education in Samoa is £9,700; pupils in Government schools in Fiji, 684 ; pupils in Government schools or schools with Government teachers in Samoa, 1,900. In any case, the cost to the taxpayers of Samoa is very small, for £8,000 of the New Zealand subsidy is allocated to education, leaving £1,700 to be borne by Samoa. On the committee's own estimate of population the comparative cost of education is therefore, per head—Fiji, 3s. sd. ; Samoa, lOd.

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