LIQUOR IN SAMOA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 10

LIQUOR IN SAMOA.

SALE BY CLUBS. REGULATIONS TIGHTENED. PROHIBITION DISLIKED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) APIA, March 15. Reports have been received in New Zealand that the handling of the liquor prohibition in Western Samoa, has been very lax of late. This has caused a tightening of the regulations and several establishments have been warned by the Police Department that sales of liquor to the public will not be allowed in future.

A few years ago a large number of so-called "night clubs" flourished in Apia and its neighbourhood, where much rowdyness and disorder took place, and the behaviour of visitors of the male and female sex was very often disgraceful. These night clubs have gradually been closed by the police, to the improvement of morals and the good name ol the territory. Of course, the depression and the ensuing bad times also had something to do with the disappearance of these disreputable establishments. With the improvement of produce prices and the resulting increase of spending power of the residents of Apia, a number of socalled "clubs" have sprung up, which also dispense liquor and beer. Liquor and ))eer are at pi'esent issued to bona fide European residents on medical permits and termed "medical allowance," which is quite fair, and proper. The owners of the clubs collect the permits of their "members" and sell the liquor or beer bo obtained at a profit to themselves. The liquor problem in Samoa and the prohibition, introduced, as people here believe, unnecessarily, have ever been a sore question. It would be far better for peace and concord in Samoa to lift the prohibition in Samoa and allow beer and liquor to be sold at licensed and properly controlled establishments to Europeans only, safeguarding the natives by levying high lines or imposing terms of imprisonment for any ofienders supplying native Sainoans with liquor. The German administration had no difliculty in protecting the natives from the dangers of alcohol, and never even thought it necessary to impose prohibition on the Europeans. The Samoans have never developed a- taste for alcohol; in fact, it was only the "forbidden fruit" in times of prohibition that induced them to start brewing "faa-mafu," or "home brew" for themselves.