Samoan Handicaps

Evening Star, Issue 19923, 20 July 1928, Page 4

Samoan Handicaps

Neglected Plantations—Closed

Schools

Heavy Drop in Taxes

Results of the Mau Movement

Scare Radio Discussed by House

IFbou Oue Pakliamentari Reporter.]

WELLINGTON, July 19 lu almost every phase of the Samoan Administration’s activities tho effect of the Mau movement is demonstrated by lacts in the Ad- ■ ministrator’s annual report. The most serious point is that native taxes totalled £17,849 in 1926-27, but only £2,466 was collected last year. To make up the deficit the- New Zealand Government placed bu.OOO on loan to the Samoan 'treasury, as required. It provided its usual £20,000 subsidy, and as tho Customs and harbour revenue waa exceptionally good tho total receipts were £126,038. The expenditure amounted to £143,422.

it is shown that tho revenue directly paiil by the natives was £4,560, and expenditure on them, including salaries of native officers, was £58,290.

REFUSALS TO REGISTER

Tlio health section suggests -hut there should have been a record increase in population owing to the low doatli rate, but the actual figures do not .show such a result, which can only lie accounted for by deliberate failure to register deaths and births. “The situation is lurther complicated by the fact that the activities of the Man have not ended with a. ban on the registration of births and deaths, but unfortunately they have also caused |-)1 women’s committees . under the child welfare scheme to cease functioning, and worse still, owing to their action, nearly all sanitary control in the various villages has been lost. This means that a very largo proportion ot the villages in Upolu and Savaii have gone back to conditions existing belore sanitation was introduced and enforced by the Government officials, it wall take some considerable time to rc-c-sta Hi sanitary control, and it is remarkable that tlie health of the natives Ims suffered so little.” COPRA ALLOWED TO ROT. The agricultural officers report that efforts to induce natives to obey the law regarding the cleaning of plantations, searching ior beetles, and making new plantings have -been almost entirely abortive. The copra 11,8(34 tons, shows a decrease of 28 tons. A very considerable tonnage of native copra was allowed to rot in the plantations. “ The indifferent attitude adopted by the people with respect to their own interests is remarkable,” says the report. “Already many thousands of young palms and bananas have been choked out with weeds, thus rendering void to a very great catonfc this important branch of the department’s work of the past two years Rhinoceros beetle is undoubtedly increasing throughout both islands, and it is anticipated, if present conditions of native inactivity obtain much longer, that we shall once nore have to _ lace a situation such as existed during the rears 1915-17, whoif the depredations of the pest threatened the very life ol the copra industry. It is no exaggeration to state that the outloou to-day with regard to the copra industry is very disquieting. From the reports ot the district inspectors it is estimated that I lie copra crop prospects for 1928, assuming that the native plantations receive immediate attention, arc even better than in the past year, but whether -Ihe Samoan.s will take hill advantage of the fact is at present highly problematical.”

EDUCATION MAKES RECOVERY. The roll numbers of the Samoan Government schools reached a record total at the end of March, but the report states that the earlier part of the year proved rather troublous for these schools, and in some districts work was so seriously retarded and interfered with by tho Man’s influence that several schools had to be closed. _ As the year advanced ho pcopb realised tho folly of depriving the children of tho advantages of education, and hastily set about rectifying it. The attendance at these schools has now improved considerably, showing a total oi 1,90 b pupils, an increase of hil over the provious year. Ot forty-one schools established prvoiously lour have bad to be closed, whilst the _ question of closing several others, owing to lack of support, is receiving consideration. The unrest has affected tho Native Affairs Department, tho Native Land Court not operating for several months, while tho Lands and Titles Commission did not sit during the year. _ However, it anticipates a busy session in Urn near future.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CRIPPLED. “The outstanding feature of the year,” states the Justice Department's report, “is the _ crippling of the authority ol tho High Court, owing io increasing difficulty experienced in the last half of tho year in securing the execution by the native police ot warrants and other processes against persons belonging to the party politically opposed to the Government. The attitude towards the court of persons who refuse to acknowledge its processes is, a corollary to the general policy of passive resistance adopted towards the Administration, and is not dictated by any special sentiment in regard to the administration of justice. The natives belonging to tho party adopting this policy aro not themselves averse to using the court as plaintiffs or complainants. “The figures in tho return of criminal cases are swelled by the conviction on February 7 28, 1928, ol 400 natives (each on two charges) in connection with the picketing of shops by the antiGovernment Party.” Tho trade returns do not reflect the reported boycott activities. Exports were valued at £335.000, an increase of £15,000, this being in cocoa and rubber. The imports, £304,369, dropped £20,571, of which proportions were:— From New Zealand, £3,270; Australia, £19,150; United States, _ £14,928. Chinese labourers remaining in Samoa number 935, a reduction of eleven. It is mentioned that experiments on Government plantations gradually to substitute Samoans for Chinese have shown that it will bo many years before local Native labour can be obtained for permanent work. Arrangements have been made for tho repatriation this year of 400 Chinese who have completed their contracts and the importation of 464 new coolies. Many planters oppose the repatriation of experienced Chinese labourers on the grounds of expense and difficulties in training new coolies for special duties, but it is the policy' of the New Zealand Government to discourage reengagements after a. term of three years, and to prohibit absolutely the renewal of the contracts ot Chinese coolies after they have been in tho territory six years. POLICY OF TOLERATION.

The report is preceded by a-careful, temperate summary by the New Zealand Government of.the political situation in Samoa. It concludes with the assurance that every effort will ho

made to seize any development that may promise an amicable settlement of the difficulty. “Toleration is being extended to the uttermost, and no opportunity of showing the disaffected Natives the error of their agitation is being lost. There has been no luck of patience in the policy adopted up to the present, and it has been considered ilio wisest course in the circumstances to continue this attitude of watchful toleration iu the meantime; but, should this policy fail, the Administration must ultimately hill back upon stronger measures.”