SAMOA

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 109, 9 May 1892, Page 4

SAMOA

HOW IT IS MISGOVERNED.

"Thk Samoan Fiasco" is what tho San Francisco "Weekly Examiner" torma the existing unsatisfactory &tate of matters political in Samoa. In a recent issuo this journal said: "So far as securing cheap and [rood government for the Samoans, it is considered tho treaty of 1889 is n doad failure. The treaty Government lias proved both inefficient and expensive. The remarkable pioco of diplomacy that was heralded as a triumph for American firmness has turned out to bo a grave burden to tho islanders it was meant to benefit. Tho Samoan King lias been supported in royal state at an expense of something liko §2GO a year. Tho Berlin treaty supplemented this simple Government with a Chiof Justice, who was hired to do nothing at ,?6,000 a year, and two others to help him out with tho job, ab liberal salaries. The islanders might well have objected to tho burden of such a charge, but it was made more odious by tho fact that tho places were used as spoils. The post of Chief Justice was given by the jYing of Sweden to a Swedish lawyer, who had evidently demonstrated his ritness for doing justico in Samoa by manipulating politics in a lower ward in Stockholm, with tho additional polish that; might be secured by a term as Prosecuting Attorney in the Police Court. The President of the Municipal Council was appointed by the President of Switzerland, ami was by' narno and inclination a German of such a type that ho was compelled to rosign last year to prevent a general uprising on the islands. Possibly the best way to settle the difficulties would bo for all foreign Governments to keep hands off and lob Samoans attend to matter of doing i justice themselves."