police-force is organised, and to keep the men in a state of efficiency
they are drilled twice a week by European instructors. The king s
private secretary, the land surveyor, the surgeon, and many skilled
mechanics are all Europeans. The legislative council or parliament
meets annually, and is opened and closed with a speech delivered by
the king in person. Through the perverse influence of the missionaries
many injudicious laws have been passed by these inexperienced legis-
lators. 1 They have made it a penal offence to wear bark cloth, and
have introduced other sumptuary regulations. Smoking was interdicted
to the women, as if the women had not the same natural right to smoke
as the men, for if it is indecent in the one to indulge in this pastime
it is equally indecent in the other.
