A. —4b.

and the Native delegates persisted in staying in and around Apia in order to see what was going to happen. The talk of deportation had upset everybody, and made everybody anxious to know what was going to happen, and most people feared they might be deported, and even though they were not personally interested themselves, they did not know what the result would be. Then the feelings were picked at and tantalized by the wholesale use of the powers conferred on the Administrator under the Samoan Offenders Act. Ido not mean to deal with that Ordinance at all. However, numbers of Native supporters of the Mau received orders to leave Apia. At first these orders were obeyed, but the orders still kept coming. The next thing was that they were sent away in irons because they had taken up the attitude that they would not go willingly. The Chairman : That was to leave Apia and live in their own homes. Mr. Baxter: Ido not think it was in that case, because it was not their homes. The Chairman : The Commission would like to know. Mr. Baxter: I cannot give you specific cases, but my friend Mr. Slipper, who is dealing with the question of banishments, will deal with that point. A number of traders down the coast received notices to show cause why their trading licenses should not be cancelled by the Administrator. Several, I believe, were cancelled. However, this is another point which will be dealt with by my friend Mr. Slipper. I merely mention this matter in passing, but, the details Mr. Slipper will be able to give you later on. I would like to mention another point, and it is that police outposts were placed at Afega and an iron gate was placed across the Letogo Bridge and policemen were stationed at those points. The position is that the object of this was not known by the people, and it did not tend to lessen the unrest in any way. Special police were signed on —I do not know how many —and there were rumours that rifles had been issued to certain gentlemen. I say it was a rumour, but it did not help to lesson the state of unrest and excitement, and it was brought to a head when a Native round at Matautu absolutely refused to acknowledge his banishment order and absolutely refused to do anything but sit down and challenge the police to come and get him. The Chairman : Where was he ordered to go to ? Mr. Baxter : He was ordered to be arrested. The Chairman : I am asking the terms of the banishment or the so-called banishment order. Mr. Baxter: That is another point which my friend Mr. Slipper will deal with. The Chairman : You do not know ? Mr. Baxter: That is so. The Chairman : That is quite sufficient. Mr. Baxter: This was a source of danger, but fortunately the Acting-Secretary realized the position, and he interviewed the Samoan concerned and as a result of that interview the matter was satisfactorily settled without any further danger. The Acting-Secretary stated that he would recommend to the Administrator that no further banishment orders should be issued for the time, anyhow. No further banishment orders were issued, and the feeling settled down considerably. The Chairman : You appear to use it as applying to an order to leave Apia ? Mr. Baxter : Yes, an order to leave Apia. The Chairman : And go to his home ? Mr. Baxter : Not necessarily, sir. The Chairman : I am not saying that it does, but do you include that ? Mr. Baxter: Yes. The Chairman : I want to know in what way you are applying the term " banishment order." I am not criticizing what you say, but I want to know what you mean ? Mr. Baxter: At any rate, matters generally were carried on in a quieter strain, the public waiting more or less to hear the result of the Petitions Committee which was sitting in Wellington. Subsequently an announcement was made that a Royal Commission was coming, and the country has been quite quiet ever since. Generally it was the endeavour of the committee and the intention of the committee — the evidence will show that 1 it was the result of its work — that everything should be done in a constitutional manner, and throughout it was a constitutional organization. Passing now to some of the other heads The Chairman : Before you depart from the subject, can you state categorically the nature of the reforms which it was the purpose of the committee to have effected ? Mr. Baxter: lam quite mindful of your direction with respect to this matter on Saturday last. The Chairman : I do not mean a general statement of the charges, but we should like to hear as soon as we can what was the purpose which this committee had in view throughout. The purpose may be innocuous or not. Mr. Baxter : The purpose for which the committee was formed, and had in its mind when it was formed, was to prepare reports, as were prepared by it, and place them before the Minister on his arrival, in the hope that the Minister would see his way clear to make reforms in the matters of complaint brought before him. That was the intention with which it was formed. Circumstances, as I have suggested throughout my address —circumstances of the idea arising that they were not going to get a hearing, the general feeling that they were being repressed —caused the movement to grow. It was never the intention of the gentlemen who first sat on that committee that such an organization as this would arise ; they expected it would be a body for preparing and placing material before the Minister in accordance with the wishes of the people, and they expected it to finish after the Minister dealt with the subject. But the Minister's delay in coming ; particularly the second meeting ; the prominence of the police —all excited the feelings in the community; and the movement was increased by the general steps for repression that were taken. This is what built up the movement.

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