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came here, and the people of England, through us, have done their best for the education of the people of Samoa. At the present time the Samoan Church is bearing the entire cost of education. We are supported by the Natives of Samoa, and therefore we can say that Samoa is bearing its own educational burden, but not through the Government at all—through voluntary contributions. Mr. Wright: On page 37 of the pamphlet it is stated that " the work could be done infinitely better and at much smaller cost by the existing agencies." Would you give us details of what is meant by " existing agencies " ? Rev. Mr. Clarke : I referred to the work which is being done by the various missionary societies. They are all mentioned in the pamphlet—the Roman Catholics, the Methodists, the Mormons, the Seventh-day Adventists. They are all educational agencies. Mr. Wright : You think, then, that it would be right to subsidize all those religious bodies? —I think that if you will refer again to that paragraph you will see that I have carefully guarded myself. I say, " The attempts at Government, education are not very encouraging, and fully warrant the citizens' fear of enormous expense with very inadequate results, and their contention, and the contention of all the other missionary societies, that the work could be done infinitely better and at much smaller cost by the existing agencies, if encouraged and helped by a Government subsidy based on results." You must bear in mind that, all the other missionary societies, so far as I am aware, except the London Missionary Society, desire to be left alone to do their own educational work. Therefore I say, bearing in mind the unwillingness of the town to foot what appears to be an exceedingly heavy bill, and the not very encouraging results of the attempts made hitherto, there is considerable warrant for the hesitation on the part of the townspeople and for the contention of the other missionary societies that the work could be done better if they were left alone. At the same time, we, the London Missionary Society, do not share that view. 1 think that is made quite plain in the paper in the pamphlet—that the London Missionary Society differ from all the other societies in their contention, and desire to support the Government in improving educational facilities for the Samoans. Hon. Sir James Allen : How much is raised by the London Missionary Societ}' for education in Samoa itself? —There is no direct levy made for education. How much is collected?— For all purposes of mission work in Samoa the contributions amount to about £8,000. The Samoan Church have an agreement with the. London Missionary Society that they shall themselves pay the expenses of their own mission. They support their own pastors, who are also the schoolmasters of the villages. With that we have nothing to do. The matter of salary is a matter of agreement between the pastor and the village. Do the villages pay the pastor? —That is independent of the £8,000. I think that, roughly, the payment of the pastor amounts to two-thirds of the sum which is contributed for the cost of the mission. They send from Home to the Samoan Churches a balance-sheet containing the expenditure for a year —the proportion of the cost of the mission ship, the cost of their share of the work in the other islands Which are the mission field of Samoa, the cost of mission salaries and mission grants, the cost of upkeep of mission houses, and all the expenses of the working of the mission : these are set forth. That balance-sheet is submitted to the Samoan Church. They have a Financial Committee, and this committee lias control of all the moneys which are collected every year. We will say they amount to £8,000. A sum of 10 per cent, is first of all written off for the whole mission work of Samoa. There is a Native committee which controls that amount. That 10 per cent, is used for work in which the whole of the interests of the Samoan Church are involved". A second 10 per cent, is written off and is placed in Ihe control of each district. The bill which is sent from the London Missionary Society for their outlay, and the bill for the local expenses, all of which have been inspected by the Native Finance Committee, are then met, and (lie balance is then at the control of the Native central committee. Hitherto they have banked it in the Bank of New Zealand on fixed deposit and as a sinking fund towards the work of higher education, to which 1 make reference in the pamphlet. It is in that way that the money is raised for educational purposes in Samoa. There is no direct levy. Mr. Young: What is the number of teaching-hours per week in the mission schools?— That is rather a difficult question. There are only three possible days for teaching in a Native school. How many hours per week in the elementary schools?— Roughly, about nine hours a week. What part of that time is devoted to the teaching of English? Rev. Mr. Sibree : We have only begun within the last two years and a half to teach English to the Native children of Samoa. For fourteen years we were deprived of the privilege of teaching English in these islands —absolutely forbidden by German law. Therefore you have a new generation which knows nothing of English. So we have to try to teach children who know nothing of the English language. With the available material we teach English from an English primer to the Fifth and Sixth Standards. 1 cannot say what time is given. We have not yet a proper syllabus for the teaching of the subject. Before the German occupation we had a timetable for our village schools, which allowed something like three hours for three days; but for three or four months of the year that time was more than doubled by the pupils sitting up at night preparing for examinations. Mr. Young : Have you any definite system governing the teaching of English in your schools? —We are beginning. We are teaching English as one of six subjects in the village schools, and it gets its proportion. In the other schools we give a very considerable amount of our time to English, where we have English teachers. At page 36 you say, " The idea is prevalent with quite a number of New-Zealuuders amongst us that the mission of the Samoan is to become a hewer of wood, a drawer of water, and a plantation labourer for the benefit of the white man." Is that paragraph likely to be translated into the Samoan language and circulated among the Samoan community?