The Hawera Star. SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1927. SAMOA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 30 July 1927, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1927. SAMOA.

Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock iu Hawera, Manaia. Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltliam, Mangatoki, Kaponga. Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Fraser Road and Ararata.

The Samoa Bill has been passed by Parliament and the House lias turned to other business, but few of the newspapers in New Zealand 'have been able to accept the measure with the tranquility displayed by a majority of the members in the House. One or two of the larger journals which still espouse the cause of Liberalism saw fit to make the proposals of the Bill, when it first came down, an excuse for an attack upon -the Reform Party, but they have been badly let down by the NationalistLiberal members who voted with the Reformers for their adoption. However, in fairness to the Press and to the public generally, it must be admitted that there are many who see no good in this latest addition to our laws for the very good reason that it appeals to them as contravening the spirit of justice as it is known to Britishers the world over. There is a good deal to be said for this point of view, even after making allowances for the fact that in taking over the administration of Samoa New Zealand was entering, upon a task very different from any she had been called upon to perform within her own borders. But some of the critics of the Government and the Bill

have overlooked this latter aspect of the situation entirely and have attacked the Bill in a spirit which would have been justified only if the Samoans had proved themselves as energetic as, say, the workers in this country, in seeking to better their conditions. In making their claims for an amendment of the law which will give less drastic powers to the Administrator, some of the critics in New Zealand have forgotten the difficulties to be encountered in Samoa by those who seek to do the best possible for an island people who have hitherto had very little reason to be thankful for European intervention in their affairs. On the other hand, it is just possible that Parliament has acquiesced too readily to the suggestion that Samoa is not New Zealand and therefore other means of preventing disaffection in another country and among other people are excusable. One

of the leading newspapers in New Zealand has stated that a “wise and tactful administration would long ago have woii the goodwill of the Samoans and made them proof against the operations of the self-seeking conspirators, if such people really exist in Samoa.’’ This, statement would suggest that in some quarters there is little understanding of the difficulties which beset those who seek to bring order and good government to natives who have not been for long under the civilising influence of the white man. Some of those who have gained much credit for “blazing the trail of Empire’’ in the jungle country of India and in the wilds of other countries, could tell a tale which would make some of our proudest arm-chair Imperialists seriously consider relinquishing their claims to British citizenship, yet Britain has deser-

vedly won for herself a fine name as a colonising nation. Sometimes early methods must be crude to meet crude conditions, but that does not necessarily mean that those who are applying the methods are lacking in sympathy with the subject race and will not strive to help it to better things when the ground has been cleared of prejudice and the effects of earlier associations with Europeans who have gone there, not to help the native, but to make money. This may be true in part of Samoa. The Samoan, though no longer ignorant of the white man and his methods of doing trade and gaining obedience to his laws, has by no means embraced all the ways of the European and is still easily swayed by appeals to

his cupidity, superstitions and distrust of new methods. Since Mr Nosworthy read his “Who’s Who in Samoa” to the House there will be less inclination than there might have been previously to extend sympathy to the Europeans who have been deported or threatened with deportation from Samoa, but there is still some justification for a feeling of uneasiness when it is remembered that the deportation law which has been brought in this session to meet the difficulties of a special situation may be, if not soon amended, exorcised against, any person in the future whose behaviour may be deemed by the Administrator then in power to be “preventing and hindering the due performance by the Government of its functions and duties.” The Bill which has received so much notice is now law, but our interest in our country’s administration of the mandate entrusted to it by the League of Nations should not flag on that account; rather should we hope that the passage of the Samoa

Bill through the House will be the prelude to a thorough investigation of affairs in the island which will lead to an intelligent understanding by ourselves of our responsibilities there and the manner in which we arc shouldering them.