RAROTONGA AND SAMOA.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16798, 1 April 1920, Page 6

RAROTONGA AND SAMOA.

REPRESENTATION OF WHITES.

(nr orn sr::ciAi. represt^tattve.) The? cno tiling upon which I think all members of Parliament were agreed throughout the cruise of the MoaOl.i was the demand of the white communities for a say in their own government. The question arose both in Rarotonga and in Apia, and there was no disposition anvwhere to oppose the claim. In regard to Rorotonga the reason whv the whites have not been represented hitherto in the Island Council is historic. When Mr Soddon made his arrangement with the arikis tor the annexation he promised that their old system of government would be maintained. This consisted of island councils in each i-lnnd and a Federal Council for the whole. It was maintained for some years, and the island councils were perpetuated in the Act. of 1915, the Federal Council having long since expired from sheer ineptitude. The whites now number 150 out of a total population of 3COO, and when they "sked for reoresentation. Sir James Allen could only deplore that there was an obstacle in the way. Lnless the chiefs would release the Government trom their obligation, New Zealand was bound to honour it. . The arikis had already complained ot the loss of their mana through the 111dividualisation of land titles. Nowadays their orders are often met by their people with the remark tint they are all landowners, and that tho people are as good as the arikis. The feudal terror of dispossession is dead; the only mana that remains is the power which tho arikis still exercise of nominating the members of the island councils. This, too, is henceforth to be carried out by a nroner process of election. To placate the whites. Sir James proposed to establish an advisory council of two whites, to act with tho" Resident Commissioner, should the natives not consent to give them representation. "Wo are children," said Paaro, chief of Takitumu, when they met the Minister at Queen Makea's Palace. "Wo look upon you as our fathers, and ask you to be generous in considering what we suggest." They proposed that tho native members o'f the" council hereafter should bo elected, and that a European member should be elected —"a real British subject, not a half-caste" —by the European electors, but should have no power at all over native matters; that tho Europeans should be under the same law as the natives in regard to liquor and to cohabiting with the larlies of the island. It was agreed that all lnws_ or the New Zealand Parliament affecting the natives should be considered by them before being passed. This was a very satisfactory outcome, inasmuch as on the first day tho arikis had declared that they would never agree to a white man being admitted to their council. "We own all tho land," they said with some bitterness, "and the Europeans are_ strangers living on the land and working it for their own benefit. Tho European mind is too deep for us to fathom." This had led to a pretty little debate wherein tho aril'is sought to hold back tho hands of the clock. Pointing his remarks sternly with outstretched finger. Tmomnnu demanded that tho mana of the arikis and the matiapos be restored to'them. It was with Queen Victoria that they had made their pact of annexation and, she being dead, the white man had no power to proceed further to deprive them of their mana.

The Labour members joined in. eagerly, asking what it was that the arikis wanted hack. Was it the feudal power of, deprivation or eviction ? Did they claim they could quite dispossess a man who displeased' them? Was it not enough that they still had more land than the common people? Tinomanu: It would not suit me. Sir James Allen said the Government would do all it could to preserve the mana of tho arikis, but they could not go hack on what had been done. Tho individualisation of land titles was a fixed part of New Zealand's policy towards the natives.. On the other hand, the wisdom of preserving what remains of chiefly mana was evident at Aitutaki. Owing to tho rise in wages, the natives there saw clearly that it would pay them handsomely to commute their labour due 3 for 8s a half-year, and it was only the authority of the arikis that broke a strong conspiracy in this direction.

THE POSITION IN SAMOA. The town of Apia, in Samoa, has been governed by a Municipal Board, off and on, for nearly forty years, and the demand of the citizens for the restoration of this right of local government was perfectly natural. _ Sir James Allen expressed his conviction that the best could only be done for the island and its people if all parties pulled together, and he hoped the whites would cooporate loyally with the Administration. The white population of Apia is a very decent, and, on the whole, a recommunity, with gcod business brains and any amount of talent for the management of local affairs. If they were a homogeneous community as regards nationality, it would be out of the question to withhold from them rights of self-government, the exercise of which would bo of the greatest possible assistance to the Administration. As it is, most of the borough activities of police, sanitation, and street cleaning have to be performed by the police, now under Captain J. Gillespie, A.P.M. The Citizens' Committee put forward proposals for the creation of a borough comprising about half the old municipality of Apia, with a rateablo value of £230.000. Unfortunately, the matter did not appear to have been well digested, and the committee had not appointed anyone to answer questions which obviously would arise. The quite impossible suggestion was put forward, evidently to meet expected objections, that the natives within the town should not be taxed unless they wished to avail themselves of the facilities of water, drainage, and so on. This was to be permissive. Then,j the tangled question of the franchise had not been considered. I could not ascertain with any certainty whether Germans or British are likelv to be in a majority in Apia. If a British ascendancy were assured, the sooner the whites in Apia are entrusted with their own government the better. Sir James Allen said the New Zealand Government had absolute power to grant a municipality, and would do so if it seemed necessai-y; but for the present it wanted to bo consulted in all matters affecting the government of the town. He was in favour of local government when the time arrived, but he did not think it was yet ripe. They must remember the difficulties caused bv the various elements of the populationBritish, Germans, half-castes, and natives. TOO MANY OFFICIALS. Many members of the party were struck by the apparent surplus of officials at Apia, where all the trappings of complete government departments seem to be in esse. The harbour employs a staff of a harbourmaster, a deputy-harbourmaster, and two clerks, to berth about one steamer and perhaps three or four schooners per month. The cost of the administration just now must be very high and the sooner the turnover from military occupation to civil conditions can be completed tho better.

The constabulary is a source of annoyance witn the whites, who professed 'to believo that their cost was on the revenues of Samoa, which it is not. Nobody seemed to regard them as a reasonable precaution for the absence of a warship—the final sanction oH authority which was alwavs present' in the German regime. 'The British whites at Apia, as at Suva, miglit make the wav easier for the Administration by putting a volunteer corps on a proper basis of training without delay.