“SPEAK ENGLISH”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 82, 19 March 1928, Page 9

“SPEAK ENGLISH”

ADVICE TO ADMINISTRATORS SOUTH SEA GOVERNMENT. LANDS OF LEISURELY MOVEMENT. An Auckland resident, who has had considerable experience in the Pacific Islands and knows the native mind intimately expressed concern to an Auckland “Star’’ representative at the Samoan trouble, inasmuch as it affects the Dominion’s mandate. “This is our first experience,” he said, “of administering a mandated territory and we stand in very good odour with the Mandates Committee, it is unthinkable that anything should occur to lessen our splendid reputation. I notice that Mr Nelson is going to Geneva, but 1 fail to see what standing he can attain there. The committee will no doubt sift the evidence of the Royal Commission and form their own conclusions. “As one who has lived amongst the natives I would like to express the opinion that whoever the new Administrator may be. he should never attempt to address the natives in their own tongue. It almost invariably leads to loss of prestige When Sir George Richardson first went to Samoa everything went on smoothly and 1 can trace a lessening of discipline from the time that th<? Administrator commenced to talk the Samoan tongue. The natives give a man working through an interpreter credit for knowing more about things generally than he really does know; when he talks the native language, no matter how perfectly, they see through him quicker. I certainly think the Administrator would have been working on safer lines if he had refrained from speaking Samoan.

“Then, again, the natives do nothing in haste. A day a week, or a month ahead is all the same to them if a thing has to be done. They are a people of leisurely movement. Sir George Jias done remarkably well, but it is a matter of opinion whether he has not tried to bring necessary reforms about far too quickly. A gradual reform in conditions should have been the policy. I have often noticed also that a change in Government officers even if there has been no trouble, has worked good in the islands, because new officials come with fresh mana, and that is an all-important point to the native mind.”