FICKLE SAMOANS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 243, 14 October 1925, Page 6

FICKLE SAMOANS.

A German writer, in an article published by the "Vossiche Zeitung" on New Zealand's administration of Samoa, laments the fact that the natives 6eem just as happy under our rule as they were under the rule of his own countrymen. He describes us as "able peasants, but without auy colonisation wishes or instincts." This is quaint as coming from a member of a nation which has been conspicuously unsuccessful in the work of establishing and managing colonial possessions. If we are without the instincts or wishes -which make successful colonists, it must be presumed that we have established ourselves in the Dominion by some lucky chance gift of the gods and without the aid of human intelligence. The Germans, in dealing with such colonies as they possessed, showed themselves to be masters of organisation and well-drilled discipline. They were able to point to public buildings, mathematically laid-out streets, card indexes, and punctual routine, as evidences of their skill and ability in establishing themselves overseas. The fickle Samoans have not apparently shown sufficient gratitude or appreciation for these sproutings of the Teuton mind. They sing our National Anthem with the same feeling as that with which they once sang the German. To the writer of the article in the "Vossiche Zeitung" this seems to show a fickleness calling for lament and reprobation. He reproaches them for their lack of loyalty, while admitting that they are amiable, peaceable, and amusing. But in spite .of our defects as colonists he admits that "New Zealanders have shown themselves to be gentlemen." He says that no harshness was shown to Germans interned by us during the war, and that his fellow-countrymen who had Samoan wives were, after the war, again put into possession of all their property. Similar tributes have been paid to our men by other nations, and it is one of the compensations for the sufferings of the war that our soldiers wherever they have gone, have upheld our good name and impressed even the enemy with their fine characteristics..