SAMOA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9064, 26 May 1888, Page 5

SAMOA.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Apia, 14th May. Matters political hero are still quiet. A very strong feeling prevails against the present de facto Government among the gi'eat majority of Samoana, but so long as two German men-o'.war remain hero to watch the dissatisfied, and compel them to accede to the commands of the King they have set over them, there is not likely to bo any open demonstration. It is the general opinion here that if the German warships wero to leave, Tamasese would not be allowed to remain a week on the throne of Samoa. The present Government are now taking the most effectual means of giving Germany possession and control without any responsibility being attached thereto. The Premier, Brandup (whom everyono believes to be nothing more than a tool of tho German Consulate and the I). H. and P.'s) has imposed a tax of 47,000 dollars, which ne knows well cannot bo paid by the Samoans through their own labour or produce within the time specified. The Samoans know that if this tax is not paid they will be imprisoned, and probably deported. They have therefore) no alternative but to go and borrow this money for the taxes, and give their houses and land as security for the same. By the timo the mortgage for this tax is paid up another one will be imposed, and so on until they cannot pay, and their lands will then be forfeited and seized by the firms lending the money. Now, although the Government have not actually published proclamations tolling the Samoans that they will not be allowed to borrow any of the money required for taxes from either British or American houses, still there can be no doubt that through an undercurrent of verbal intimation by Government officials the poor people are led to believe that if they borrow their money and give their produce in return to any British or American house they will be made to suffer for it. The Government have imposed the tax not on the individual but on the district, so that each man is not only responsible for his own tax but for that of his neighbours as well. The chiefs and rulers in each district, most of w4iom are appointees of the Government, have the power to mortgage the property of the whole district, and as these men are receiving pay from a Government put in and supported by Germany, they naturally mortgage the district and give their produce to the German firm. I believe that the present Premier of the df. facto Government (Mr. Brandus) is inclined to do what i 3 fair to all nationalities, but he has got to go with those who put him in power, and who arc certainly much moro unscrupulous than ho is. It Is a perfect farce for the German and British Government to state that British interests arc not in any way interfered with hore under the present system of Government, since the Government have not passed laws directly antagonistic to British and American trade, but they are in another way attaining the same result, and that without any apparent responsibility being attached thereto.

We have at last had a visit from a British man-of-war, and witli it came the Governor and Chief Justice of Fiji. The latter gentleman came down to try a case of manslaughter preferred against a British subject called McDonald, who accidentally shot one of Tamasese's policemen, who was illegally attempting to arrest him. The Judicial Commissioner sat with the Assessors, who, after carefully listening to and weighing the evidence, returned a verdict of not guilty. The Judicial Commissioner agreed with the decision come to by the Assessors, and dismissed the prisoner after a strong admonition to be more careful in future in handling dangerous weapons. Everyone present was struck with the able and decisivo mannor in which Chief Justice Berkley conducted the trial.

It has not transpired what Sir John's mission here was, but it is supposed that he took advantage of the man-of-war coming with tho Judicial Commissioner to come and see for himself how things were being conducted under the new regime. The Callioj>c came in on Thursday and sailed again on Sunday, so there was very little tune for either observation or investigation. We hopo Sir John's visit, although short, will be productive of good rosults. But we have been reported on so often without anything coming out of it that we are not at all sanguine about the future.

The American man-o'war Mohican is still hero. They expect another ship daily to relieve them, as I understand the time of the officers and men is almost up. The United States Ooverntnont deserve the thanks of the British and American residents of Samoa for the stand thoy have taken. The British authorities will send a man-of-war and a Chief Justice all the way from Fiji for the purpose of punishing a Britisher if no had been found guilty. It Would really appear, from their recent action in the Pacific, that they use their whole power and vigilance to protect others against their own subjects, and not to protect their own subjects against the aggression of others. Loyalty is not a plant likely to thrive under such treatment. The British

residents in the Pacific are not such scoundrels as the Foreign Office, apparently, would like to make the world believe they are. All they want is a fair field and no favour—a thing the British Government have never yet acorded them.