OUR RECORD IN SAMOA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 14

OUR RECORD IN SAMOA.

"Pair Comment" is only trying to befog the issue when lie asks me to be "moro precise and give proof of an actual case in either of the general headings" stated by me as "destroying tho ancient patriarchal chieftainships." lio quoted the Royal Commission which sat at Ajna in September-October, 1927 (not early in 1928), but if he had studied the report of that commission, he should have found full particulars of over 100 cases where leading Sarnoau chiefs and orators were banished from their villages and/or deprived of the use of their chiefly titles by the Administrator, prior to the sitting of that commission. Over a trivial matter —a dispute over a hibiscus hedge —tho late Tamasese Lcaloli was banished in 1924 by the Administrator from his home at Vaimoso, first to Leulumoega, then imprisoned for three months, and afterwards sent to tlxe island of Savaii, while the order made it an offence for him to answer to liis chiefly title Tamasese, but only to his Christian name Lealofi. Because there was no time given as to when the order expired, the chairman of the Royal Commission, the late Sir Charles Skorrett, then Chief Justice of New Zealand, stated: "In common law, that would read as a banishment for life. Apart from the question raised by my colleague, it looks as if that order I did not really follow the Statute Book I at all." "Alipia" is the leading chieflyi orator title of tho district of Aana, in tho island of Upolu. The present holder of that title was banished from his home in Leulumoega, and ordered to remain outside of the whole island, except within the confines of the village of Faleata, in tho district of Tuamasaga, for the term of the order. "Antagavaia," holding similar rank in the district of I'alanli, Savaii, was banished to Safune in the district of Gagaifomauga. These are three of a large number of cases confirmed at the hearing of the Royal Commission, but if such degradation of leading Samoans holding hereditary chiefly titles will not "destroy the ancient patriarchal chieftainships" of Samoans, then "Fair Comment" might say what will.

The craze for the building of so-called "model" villages by the rearrangement of the residential boundaries caused such serious disturbances in some villages, where i£ was attempted that the "blunder" was abandoned, after much damage was done. There can be no doubt that- Dr. Solf must have received authority from the German Government to deport Lauaki and others from Samoa to Saipan, but that "per se" authority was never, to my knowledge, made part of the statutory laws of Samoa-, such as the "Samoan Offenders Ordinance, 1022" and the "Samoa (Amendment) Act, 1927," whereby the Administrator may banish and deport whom he likes, so long as he "is satisfied" they are | interfering with the functioning of his Administration. The amnesty by which Lauaki and other Samoan chiefs were allowed to return to Samoa in 1914 cannot, be attributed to generosity or forgiveness on the part of New Zealand, for tho simple reason that they had never offended against Now Zealand, and it was an act against German administration, which might rightly have been expected of the New Zealand authorities at the time when she was at war with Germany.

The case for the Samoans before the Royal Commission intentionally excluded personal charges against any of the officials, and that is why no evidence was offered in that direction. The VerschafTelt - Park - Bcrendson Report, which "Fair Comment" snid lie had read carefully, quotes numerous instances of actions of white officials in Samoa, which can be given rather ugly names. The Royal Commission ruled that there was no evidence before the commission to provo that T was concerned in the political activities of the Samoans at the time, but the Administrator, two months later', deported me on that very charsrc, without trial. My reference to the source from which knighthoods and other honours'are conferred by the King was a statement of fact, not an opinion. 0. F. NKLSON-TAISI.