PROPOSED ANNEXATION OF SAMOA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6813, 18 September 1883, Page 5

PROPOSED ANNEXATION OF SAMOA.

The following is a petition which has been prepared by Mr. J. A. Tole, M.H.R., and which is to be sent to Samoa for signature :— To the Government of the colony of Hew Zealand. —The petition of us the undersigned, hereditary chiefs, heads of tribes, and other aborigines of the Samoan or Navigators Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean, and alio of us the undersigned European inhabitants of the said Island, Bhoweth:— 1. That yonr petitioners have heretofore viewed with the deepest concern the relations subsisting between the two races, and ' the unsatisfactory condition of political govern- [ ment and social order, upon which the prosperity of these Islands in a great degree depends. 2. That your petitioners rejoice to learn that the Legislature of New Zealand have enacted I a measure, to facilitate the annexation to the I colony of New Zealand of any island or islands in the Pacific whose inhabitants may make proposals to that effect to you as the Government of the said colony. 3. It is firmly believed by your petitioners that if negotiations were, under the provisions of the enactment, carried on to a successful issue, the evil consequences which have resulted from the existence you state of affairs in thsso ialands generally, and against which your petitioners most anxiously and urgently desire to provide, would no longer continue. 4. Your petitioners earnestly point out to your Government the desirability as early as possible of causing the appointment of a commission or commissions, to conduct with us, or some fit and proper persons appointed by us, negotiations relative to the annexation of these islands to New Zealand. 5. Your petitioners do not at this Btage think it necessary to enter upon the Beveral grave questions as to customs and territorial rights of your aboriginal petitions, as also the establishment of laws and institutions applicable to aborigines or Europeans, the due regard to the just rights of both races of inhabitants, and generally such other important questions which would naturally have to be considered in arriving at a basis of such annexation,or the terms upon which such annexation might be satisfactorily concluded, nil of which matters would more properly arise when the abovo-mentioned commissioner or commission may be appointed. Your petitioners therefore most sincerely and respectfully pray that your Government will, in accordance with the spirit and intention of the Act passed by the Legislative Aasembly of New Zealand, listen to the appeal which we now make to you, by enabling your petitioners, by annexation to your colony, to securo to these islands lasting peace, and that good order and government which your colony enjoys. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.