A. —4b.

(d) Tlie Faipule should cease to interfere with the work or position of other officials, such as the Native Magistrates, Commissioners (Land and Titles), Agricultural Inspectors, or village officials (Mayors). (e) Each village should select their own village official, and he should confine himself the duties of his office and not take advantage of his official position to assume other than his own personal status in the village. (/) The rule of the hereditary Vi lage Councillors should be re-established in accordance with Samoan custom, for the preservation of peace and harmony of the villages. This should also apply to the District Councils, according to Samoan custom, with any necessary reservations to comply with Government requirements. 13. We earnestly pray that all laws empowering the Administrator or the Faipule to inflict punishments on the Samoan people without trial be repealed. 14. As an earnest of New Zealand's desire to upkeep the prestige of the Samoan people, the matter of dealing with Samoans in respect to the law should be confined to the High Court, and there should also be means for Samoans to appeal to a higher Court against a decision of a lower Court. 15. We humbly express our sincere wish as follows : That the High Court of Samoa be opened, or a special Judge be appointed from New Zealand, to investigate all cases wherein Samoans have been punished under the Samoan Offenders Ordinance, and the said Ordinance be repealed in all its stages. 16. To insure the acquisition of a knowledge by the Samoans of the law, we sincerely wish to have representatives of the Samoan people in the Legislative Council, so that they deliberate in equal status with the European representatives, such as is done in Fiji and New Zealand. 17. We state in all humility that we should very much like to see all laws in force in Samoa printed and published in the Samoan language as well as in the English language at the time they are put in force. We should also like to see in each year publication of all statements appertaining to the finances of the Samoan Administration, such as is done in the English language. We are very sorry to learn authentically of a debt owing by the Samoan Administration to the New Zealand Government, which debt we understand was started some years ago and is ever increasing, whereas this has not been known to the Samoan people owing to the finances of the Samoan Administration not being published in Samoan. 18. We emphasize most humbly the following: The presentation by the Fono of Faipule to the New Zealand Government, in the first month of the past year, in the form of a " fine mat " and other valuable articles of our country we approve of whole-heartedly ; but the speech of Toelupe in which he conferred on the said articles the sovereignty of Samoa, we beg leave of the New Zealand Government to totally ignore that speech, because he did it on his own account and has no authority whatever over such matters. He has not been in any way empowered by our country to speak on them. 19. We beg leave to explain the following : In the month of October of the past year a public meeting of Samoans and Europeans was held in Apia. A. committee of Samoans and Europeans was then appointed. to prepare means by which our feelings would be represented to the Minister (of External Affairs), then due to arrive in Samoa. On the day of that meeting the news reached us that the Minister's visit was postponed till May of this year. A request was resolved on to be made to the Minister to come to Samoa earlier. Owing to the Minister not acceding to that request, another public meeting was held on the 12th November, 1926. The Administrator expressed his dissatisfaction with that meeting, but he did not produce satisfactory reasons to call the meeting off. A resolution was then passed to respectfully request the Minister to receive a delegation of Samoans and Europeans, in the month of January (in New Zealand), who will present him reports of matters decided on by the Samoans and Europeans in respect to their relations with the Administration. A reply was received from the Minister stating he was prepared to receive the delegation, providing all the prepared reports would be firstly submitted to the Administrator for report, and on subjects affecting Native affairs they would be similarly submitted to the Fono of Faipules and the Administrator. This was complied with, but latterly the Minister stated he would not receive the Samoan delegates unless their views coincided with those of the Fono of Faipule and Administrator. We have spent a lot of money on radiograms. One of'our European delegates left for New Zealand in January in the hope the Minister would ultimately be induced to conform with his original promise to receive the whole delegation and to receive the reports prepared by the committee, supported by a very large majority of Samoans and Europeans, for the consideration of the New Zealand Government; but neither the Minister nor the Samoan Administration would allow Samoan Natives to travel to New Zealand in connection with this matter. No restrictions would be placed on the delegation had it been Europeans only, but Samoans are prohibited. Many chiefs and orators of Samoa have been punished for taking part in this movement; they have been ordered out of Apia, and some have been brought back from the Island of Savai'i. Some have been relieved of their official positions, but most of all are they who have been ordered to appear and questioned by the Faipule and the Administrator, also by the Secretary of Native Affairs. The only reason for all this is the support of the committee by such Samoans. These all prove to us the very insignificant and lowered status of the Samoan people in the opinion of the New Zealand Government. The liberty of many has been withheld. By the wish of the Administrator, but without any trial whatsoever, many Samoan chiefs and orators have been deprived of their titles and family names, and banished out of their native villages. Some of these have not been reinstated or relieved from these heavy punishments. 20. We find it hard to understand the reason for the hard things imposed on us in these days, as we have not been thus treated by previous Governments. We therefore humbly pray for our being given the liberty due to our proper status. We further ask for the same channels to be opened to us such as are opened to the Europeans to present petitions to the New Zealand Government in purely Native affairs as well as in matters wherein we have united with the Europeans.

XLV