A.—4b.

Natives should be considered by the Government in the absence of the administrator's report thereon; and, in the case of delegations on Native matters, that these should not be received unless the Secretary for Native Affairs is also present. For these reasons I took the action referred to in the attached report. Paragraph 6. —With reference to the statement regarding " some laws made expressly for the Samoans, oppressing us to the point of slavery," not one law has been quoted in support of this statement. It is absolutely untrue, and when I referred to it in a fono composed of Native chiefs and orators it caused laughter and ridicule. It is true that laws have been made compelling Natives to clean villages, install sanitation, and increase their plantations ; but the Natives know too well that they are to-day deriving great benefit from these laws. The following is a summary of the regulations made by the Fono of Faipule. Not one o' these can be considered as either hard or even non-essential:— (1) The establishment of District Councils and Village and Women's Committees providing for the Natives to control their own affairs and to submit to higher authority their needs. (2) Cleaning villages. (3) Remodelling of villages. Merely an exhortation for this to be done under the guidance and assistance of the Administration. (4) Prohibition of the custom of burying their dead near fales, or in villages, and the establishing of village cemeteries. (5) Provision for holding agricultural shows in villages every year. (6) Annual holidays and celebrations—i.e., King's Birthday, Flag-raising Day, &c. (7) Designs for making fales. (8) Provision for latrines in villages. (9) Destruction of rubbish. (10) Care of pigs, and fines for allowing pigs to wander in villages and plantations. (11) Payment for making new roads and tracks, and care of roads. (12) Refund to villages of three-fourths of the fines imposed by village officials for establishing village funds. (13) Making good copra. (14) Care of plantations. (15) Protection of water-supplies. (16) Land leased by Natives to missions to be returned to owners when no longer used by missions. (17) Prohibition on aitagi or death feasts, and burials to take place within twenty-four hours of death. (18) Prevention of cruelty to horses. (19) Regulations for traffic on roads. (20) Making of wills. (21) Division of bush land to persons without land. (22) The wrong use of names or titles prohibited. (23) Dog-taxes. (24) Fines for not attending a District Council meeting when called upon to do so. (25) Permission to be obtained from pidenu'u to hold fonos in villages. (26) Proper respect to be shown by youths to chiefs and orators. (27) Inquests in case of sudden deaths. (28) Care of burial-grounds. (29) Debts to traders not recoverable at law from Samoans, except contracts agreed upon and approved by Administration. (30) Instructions for planting coconuts, and restriction on use of green nuts. (31) Prohibition on fa'a-Samoa marriages, whereby a man could live with a woman for a period, then send her to her family and get another fa'a-Samoa wife, and accept no responsibility for children. (32) Payment of interest and sinking fund on loans for district pipe-line water-supply scheme. Each matai to pay an annual rate to cover that portion of the costs not borne by the Administration. (33) Natives absent from their villages for more than six months to have no control in village matters. (34) Natives from out-districts not to remain in Apia unless in employment, but to return to their own lands and work them. (35) Fines remitted to a village not to be paid back to pulenu'us but to be placed by the Secretary of Native Affairs in the bank, as a village fund. Paragraph 8. — The reference to the Administrator's lack of knowledge, or wish to ignore the temper and true character of the Samoan, and that he has misinterpreted their obedience to laws and patience under heavy punishments to be approval of such laws, and has set aside time-honoured customs and privileges : It should be remembered that the Natives are directly administered by a Secretary of Native Affairs, who is not only responsible to the Administrator for his Department, but is also his adviser on Native matters, as well as being a Commissioner of the High Court for the administration of justice in purely Native offences. Samoa during the past seven years has been extremely fortunate in having exceptionally good, highly qualified, and fine type of officials as Secretaries of Native Affairs. From 1921 up to May last

LI