SAMOAN COMMISSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19780, 29 October 1927, Page 11

SAMOAN COMMISSION.

ADDRESSES BY COUNSEL. MR. NELSON AND MAU. A. and N.Z. APIA. Oct. 27. The sittings of the Samoan Commission were resumed to-day. The Administrator, Sir George Richardson, who was recalled by the Commissioners, said that before Mr. 0. F. Nelson left Samoa for his recent tour in Australia there had never been any serious political disagreements between them, nor was the general ques. Hon of banishments discussed between them. Counsel addressed the commission. Mr. V 7. R. Meredith, for the Crown, said the evidence showed that the European members were guided by the Mau and Mr. Nelson led it. By refusing to pay taxes and by not obeying the orders of the Government officials a section of the community was defying the law and was practically in a state of revolution. Mr. Meredith contended that the socalled banishments by the Administration were necessarj as a revolution was apparent, with the risk of bloodshed following if the position were not grappled with resolutely The Citizens' Committee had substantiated no serious complaints They were mostly based on incomplete facts and were highly fantastic. Mr Baxter, counsel for the Citizens' Committee, gave an address that lasted for three hours. He said it was unfair for the Administration to compete in the copra trade against the merchants, who had invested huge capital in its develop ment. It was not shown that they exploited the natives. He admitted that the committee's allegations regarding the finance of the Administration were erroneous in some respects, but not that they were deliberately erroneous. Not a tittle of evidence had been brought to show th.lt the natives were misled by these errors. He contended that striking evidence had been given by the natives who disputed the medical tax and the division of land. He said the Crown had been tactless in its handling of the whole affair, and had changed an ordinary situation into the existing state of affairs. Mr. T B Slipper, for the natives, asked the commission to request the New Zealand Government to do away with prohibition to some extent. He said there was nothing to warrant the wholesale banishment which had taken placeThe inquiry is now ended.