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Enclosure. Amending and confirming Order in Council establishing Cook and other Islands Land Titles Court. Plunket, Governor. Order in Council. At the Government House, at Wellington, this twenty-eighth day of October, 1904. Present: his excellency the governor in council. Whereas by Order in Council made on the seventh day of July, one thousand nine hundred and two, under the powers in that behalf conferred upon the Governor in Council by " The Cook and other Islands Government Act, 1901," and its amendments (hereinafter called "the said Acts"), the Cook and other Islands Land Titles Court (hereinafter called "the said Court") was established, with the power and functions in the said Order in Council mentioned: And whereas it is expedient to amend and confirm the said Order in Council in manner hereinafter appearing: Now, therefore, in exercise of the power conferred upon him by the said Acts, and of all other powers and authorities enabling him in this behalf, His Excellency the Governor of the Colony of New Zealand, acting by and with the advice and consent of the Executive Council of the said colony, doth hereby order and declare as follows: —• 1. The powers and functions which are conferred upon the Chief Judge by clauses 5, 6, 11, 13, 26, and 30 of the said Order in Council shall hereafter be exercised in Niue Island by the Judge having jurisdiction in that island (hereinafter called "the Niue Island Judge"), and not by the Chief Judge. 2. For Niue Island there shall be a separate seal of the Court. Such seal shall be of the same form as the seal referred to in clause 9 of the said Order in Council, with the addition of the words " Niue Island." It shall be in the custody of the Niue Island Judge, and shall be used for sealing documents which in that island require to be sealed: Provided that the validity or regularity of any document shall not be questioned or affected by reason merely that it is sealed with the one seal instead of the other. 3. So long as there is in Niue Island a Registrar of the said Court or a Resident Commissioner, all references to the Registrar or the Resident Commissioner in the said Order in Council shall in Niue Island be construed as references to the Registrar or Resident Commissioner in that island. 4. The fees payable in Niue Island under the said Order in Council shall be paid into the Niue Island Revenue Account. 5. Subclause (10a) of clause 10 of the said Order in Council is hereby revoked. 6. Subject to the foregoing amendments, the said Order in Council is hereby confirmed, and shall be deemed to be the application to the said islands of the corresponding provisions of " The Native Land Court Act, 1894," and the regulations thereunder, with such modifications as are necessary to adapt them to the conditions and circumstances of the said islands and the inhabitants thereof. J. F. Andrews, Acting Clerk of the Executive Council.

No. 96. Sib, — Niue, Ist November, 1904. I have the honour to enclose to you herewith, for transmission to His Excellency the Governor, a letter which has been handed to me by the King and chiefs of Niue, together with a certified translation thereof. It will save time if I make a brief commentary on the subject-matter of this letter. I have already touched on the matters alluded to in it in a previous letter, No. 31/N of 4th October, which has no doubt reached you. I would suggest that reply to this letter from the Natives be deferred until I have had an opportunity of seeing you personally, as there are a good many things involved which are beyond the compass of an ordinary letter. With reference to shortening the term of office of the Niue Councillors, the Native idea is to obtain higher salary, and then put in a different man each year to participate in it —unfortunately without regard to fitness or possible inferiority to the member who is displaced. Great firmness is occasionally required to prevent them appointing utterly unsuitable men as Magistrates or constables The remarks in the letter concerning road-works do not fairly state the position. The rate of payment varies according to the class of work in hand. Three shillings per fathom is given for difficult work, down to Is. 6d. for the easiest class of new work, the Government finding tools and explosives. It would be quite beyond the resources of the Administration to pay thirty or forty labourers 4s. a day for any length of time. Unless they were under a white foreman, the money would be practically wasted. I constantly employ small gangs on daily pay—3s. for foremen, and 2s. for labourers—on work where it is impracticable or inconvenient to employ piecework; but unless under my own frequent supervision the result is unsatisfactory, as the following instance will show: I had six men building a stone wall at a dangerous point on the road to Tuapa. I rode out to inspect the work, and found two men only at work. The foreman (a member of the Niue Council) was away shooting in the bush; the other three men were absent on various errands unconnected with the work. A pack of cards lay convenient under a shady tree where-