1060 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [part Vv 
with the land policy of the New Zealand Government, on 
the ground that they are under the direct sovereignty of 
the King, which they accepted by the Treaty of 1842. These 
petitions have from time to time been answered, as in 1908, 
by a statement that the matter is essentially one for the 
Government of New Zealand, which may be trusted to secure 
the rights and interests of the Maori population. Indeed, 
the presence of Maori members in both Houses and on the 
Executive Council appears to have solved, in a particularly 
ideal manner, the difficulties inherent in the management 
of natives.! It is, too, fortunate that the Maori people are 
singularly courageous, and so in the early days won the 
respect of the white colonists, and at the same time capable 
of intellectual advancement, so that there never has been 
substantial difficulty in securing Maoris or semi-Maoris to 
be members of the Executive Council of the Dominion. 
New Zealand has dependencies in the shape of the Cook 
[slands.? These islands are of course subject to the general 
legislative power of the Parliament of New Zealand, but they 
possess also in themselves a Federal Parliament for the 
Cook Islands, created by an Act of 1901, and several native 
Councils. The construction of the Island Councils was 
altered in 1904, and each Council now consists of nine mem- 
bers, the Resident Agent of Government being ex officio 
member and President, the Arikis being ex officio members, 
and the remaining members being elected by the adult 
natives of the Islands for a term not exceeding three years. 
The Federal Council enacts laws for all the Islands except 
Niue, while each Island Council can make Ordinances. No 
Ordinance has the force of law until assented to by the 
Governor, and the Governor, by Order in Council, can 
direct that anv of the laws in force in the Islands at the 
* The Constitution of 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. 103), which never took effect, 
would have excluded Maoris de facto from the franchise, and that of 
1852 left the position unsatisfactory. The present system of separate 
representation is clearly satisfactory to all concerned. 
* See New Zealand Official Year Book for an annual account of the 
progress of the islands : Consolidated Statutes, 1908, No. 28.