A. —4b.

Is there anything which you desire to say about the Faipules ?—I do not wish to speak al out the other Faipules ; I only want to speak about my own. When it was decided in the Fono of Faipules that the Native lands should be divided he came back to our village and gave out the following : it has been decided in the Fono of Faipules that the Native lands shall be divided. He instructed the pulenu'u to commence right away to divide up the land. The Faipules, the pulenu'u, and the village committee then went on to Native lands and divided it up in their own way. How did they divide it ? —Boundaries are arrived at, and each person in the village is given 1 acre of land. Did they observe the boundaries of the land of the different families I—-In1 —-In some cases family land was divided up amongst that particular family ; in other cases the land was cut off from one family and given to another family. They had gone on pretty far with this work when somebody lodged a complaint with the Faipule. The village was called together and the objectors stated their objections. The matter of the division of the land was discussed, and it was agreed that the land should not be divided up. People have gone so far as to cultivate their portion of the land allotted to them by the Faipule. I was not satisfied with the Faipule's action in agreeing with the objectors that the land should not be divided. We think he is wrong in that, and that after dividing the land it should be left at that. That is the complaint against the Faipule. Judge MacCormick.] Do you agree with the division of the land, or do you object to it ? You object to the Faipule having drawn up the scheme of distribution ?—(No answer.) Mr. Baxter : He qualified that by saying that after it was divided up some of the people were cultivating it. Judge MacCormick.~\ They live in families, do they not ?—Yes, but it was one of the other families. lam taken entirely by surprise at the witness's answer. That is all I can say. Mr. Baxter.] You are a member of the Citizens Committee : why did you go to that first meeting ?— I went of my own free will to state my grievances. We know that you were elected to the committee, and we have heard about the growth of the Mau ? —Yes. There is trouble now in Samoa, and I want you to tell the Commission shortly what was the cause of that trouble ? —There are so many laws and regulations passed by the Government. That is no good : you must tell us what regulations you refer to ? —One of the particular laws is that enabling the Administrator to take away titles of Native chiefs. There is also the stopping of the Samoan custom, the " fine mat " regulation. There are other laws, but I cannot remember them just now. Mr. Meredith.] Did you attend all the meetings of the Citizens Committee ? —I attended the meetings of the Citizens Committee until I was ordered away. Where they held in Mr. Nelson's office ? —Yes, they were held in Mr. Nelson's office. And do you remember the meeting when the reports were brought in by the various members ?—I was present. Do you know what was in Mr. Williams's report ? —I did not take any notice of the European reports, but only the Samoan reports. You took no notice of the European reports ? —That is so. Did the European try to explain those reports to you ? —No. Have you attended any big fonos of the Mau during the last three months ? —Until I was ordered away, yes. Where were those fonos held ?—Some were held in Lepea and some in Tuaefu. What Europeans spoke at those fonos ?■ —Mr. Williams spoke, as well as Mr. Smyth and Mr. Gurr. That is all I can remember. Did Mr. Nelson speak at any ? —Yes ; he was the chairman and he spoke. At all these fonos Mr. Nelson was chairman ? —Yes. And did the Europeans tell the Natives that the principles of the Mau were good ? —Yes. You remember His Excellency the Governor-General of New Zealand coming to Samoa ?—Yes. The Natives made no complaints to him at all ? —I did not remember any, nor do I know of any complaints. They made statements of loyalty and affection towards him, did they not Yes. That was in May, 1926 ?—Yes. Did they have any grounds for complaint in 1926 ? —Yes. Why did they not make them then to His Excellency the Governor-General ?—I was appointed to make a speech to welcome His Excellency the Governor-General. There were grievances that I intended to put forward in that speech, but the Faipules ordered me not to make any complaints in my speech. Did you report them to the Administrator at that time ? —No ; but only my own personal grievances were put before the Administrator. Should you not, as a public official, have told the Administrator of any general grievance that was in existence at that time ? —I did report to him the grievance of the Samoans. When ? —When he was on his malaga round the island in November of last year. I cannot remember the month distinctly, but it was about that time during his malaga last year. That was after the two public meetings that were called by the Citizens Committee, was it not ?— I met His Excellency the Administrator and advised him of the grievances before the two public meetings. Where was that ?—At Leulumoega. Was that on His Excellency's malaga ? —Yes.

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