SAMOAN INQUIRY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 9, 5 October 1927, Page 11

SAMOAN INQUIRY

BANISHED SON OF A KING DISCUSSES PEDIGREES OF CHIEFS (Special to Press Association by Radio.) Apla, October 3. The Samoan Commission continued the hearing of evidence before Sir Charles Skerrett. Moananu Faafoi told the Court that Malietoa, the witness’s father, was a king, and yet the witness was disentitled and banished. Discussing the pedigrees of chiefs and referring contemptuously to a speech by another chief, he said that such chiefs complained against him, but he was of higher rank than they. He was against the medical tax and against the Administration. The proposed law for the subdivision of land might cause trouble to his family and result in witness having to work for someone else. Authority had been given the Faipules by the Administrator and made them overbearing, though they were only Government servants, representing nobody.

ORATORS WHO SUFFERED PUNISHMENT

(Rec. October i, 7 p.m.) Apia, October 3.

Siaupiu, formerly of Autagavaia, deposed that the leading orator’s title had l>een taken from him, and he had also been banished three times, the first . time under Colonel Tate, the second in 1925, and the third this year. No means of subsistence had been supplied by the Administration. Houses and plantations had deteriorated greatly in liis absence. Under cross-examination he admitted that the 1922 banishment was for seditious conspiracy. Fuataga, leading orator of Samoa, who was sent to prison for six months for refusal to obey an order to return to his home village, gave evidence that in his opinion the order was made because he was a member of the Mau. He had refused to obey the order, and ha dbeen sentenced to a term of imprisonment, which he was now serving. He had done nothing to disturb the good order of the territory. He was opposed to the medical tax and supported the self-government of Samoa by Samoans “UNCROWNED KING OF SAMOA” NATIVES’ FAITH IN HON. 0. F. NELSON Dominion Special Service. Auckland, October 4. “There is no doubt that the Hon. 0. F. Nelson is the uncrowned king of Samoa.” This remark was made by both Mr. J. J. Dougall, the Christchurch solicitor and ex-Mayor of Christchurch, and Mr. B. Falck, president of the Canterbury Automobile Association, who returned by the Tofua to-day. "The attitude of the natives is one. of passive resistance; they refuse to work,” said Mr. Dougall. “It. seemed to .me that as far as the natives are concerned the Government has ceased lo function. A member of the Citizens’ Committee admitted to me that the natives are out of hand, and the committee looked to Mr. Nelson to control them when he returned.

“It is impossible to' carry on under the conditions at present existing in Samoa,” continued Mr. Dougall. “One of the parties will have to go It will be months before the natives get back to normal “The situation is more difficult than New Zealand thinks,” was another of Mr Dougall's comments. “Personally, I think the Administration has been too paternal and too lenient. It has done everything possible for the natives.” There must be strong government before the natives can be brought back to normal. He thought when the Tofua arrived at Apia the natives must have thought that Mr. Nelson was on board, as thev had gathered in large numbers All of them adopted a sullen attitude, and manv were in their war paint, but by next day the natives had returned to their villages. There was no demon-s"->rtion when the Commission sat. V?hen Mr. Dougall left there was talk of keeping the' Commission in Samoa for three months. “I had a talk with Mr. Nelson and with Mr. Smyth,” said Mr Dougall,

“and they were both exceedingly confident of the result of the Commission. I’ersonallv, I thought that they were over confident ”

Despite the present outlook in Samoa, Mr. Dougall found a great improvement since he was last there, both on the waterfront and on the plantations. Rubber was now a paying proposition, and also the coconut. Great credit, he savs, is due to the Administrator (.Sir George Richardson). Sanitary conditions in the native villages have improved, and fresh water is now laid on to them all. The comfort of the natives has been cared for, particularly from a medical point of view, but the natives are in an ugly mood. For months they have refused to bring in auv rhinoceros beetles. Mr. Falck made the same observations as Mr. Dougall. He said that on the day that the Tofua arrived many canoes came from the outlying islands, and that on the day Mr. Nelson was due to return to Samoa an assembly of from 10,000 to 12,000 natives was expected to welcome him