THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1899.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11397, 14 April 1899, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1899.

It is impossible to read the account we hiive received of the fighting in Samoa without poignant feelings of regret. Eleven good lives have now been sacrificed in the interests'of law and order, and there has probably been a heavy loss, on the side of the Mataafa party. That all this, as well as the massacre of adherents of Malietoa on the first call to arms, might have been avoided if the German Consul-general had joined with the representatives of the two other Powers which are concerned in tho joint control of the group must be evident. Equnlly plain is it that Mataafa an' his followers have, since the outbreak of hostilities, been encouraged by the support of German residents. AVithout the knowledge that he would receive that support he would never have entered upon his utterly hopeless conflict; with the British and American naval forces. Mataafa is an intelligent man, and it is not reasonable to suppose that unless he was assured of German countenance ho would have defied the iidversa decision of the. Chief Justice in respect to the succession to the kingship. It was at that point that the trouble begnn. In accordance with the terms of the Berlin Act the Treaty Powers are required to uphold tho decision of the Chief Justice, but the Gorman Consul-general refused to recognise the election of Malietoa Tanu as Kinc; or to regard the judgment of the. Supreme Court in the matter as final. This was the first direct and open in-

citement to rebellion,' but it would be idle to suppose that when, at the death of tho old King,'the Germans brought JVlataafa back from his exile on Kakaufo Island, to which they had themselves deported him in 1893, he was not led by them perfectly well to understand that they would stand by him through thick and thin. If tho German Consulgeneral had, as his duty dictated he should do, co-operated with the British and American Consuls in insisting upon tho decision of the Chief Justice being obeyed, it cannot be doubted that there would havo been none of tho lamentable developments that have occurred. A demonstration by tho warships would havo been sufficient to quell any turbulent disposition on the part of Mataafa. Instead of that ho ha,s been openly encouraged to acts of rebellion by tho official- representative of one of the Powers that are parties to the Berlin Treaty. Whatever their ultimate object may have been, the Germans have clearly fomented tho strife in the islands. The inaction of the Government in Berlin itself has been somewhat remarkable. Tho decision oi Chief Justico 'Chambers regarding the kingship dispute was given on the 31st December. It was immediately after that that the first acts of insubordination were committed. We are now in tho, middle of April, and matters at Samoa have. simply been allowed unsatisfactorily to drift; for more than three i months. Samoa is of course a mere speck in the vast waste of Pacific waters and is thousands and thousands of miles from. Germany, but when distance is annihilated, as it now is by the use of the electric current, it is idle to suppose that the Imperial German Government coukl not many times over have communicated with its Con-: sul-general at Apia disavowing his actions and peremptorily instructing him to co-operate Iwith the other consular representatives. It was not until after Admiral Kantz had, on the 15th March, taken the decisive step of shelling TTpolo from the United States cruiser Philadelphia—a step that was apparontly forced upon him by the defiant conduct'of the Mataafa party and by the depredations they were committing— tha| a proposal for an International Commission ;was; made by Germany. Even then the^'■Berlin newspapers were at pains to make it known that Prince Hohenlohe, the : Imperial Chancellor, had not abandoned the support of Mataafa, and this tends to confirm the suggestion that throughout the whole conflict the German Consul-general in standing aloof from the British and American Consuls was only carrying out the wishes, implied,if not expressed, of his Government. The International Commission having now been agreed to, it may be assumed that the German support will be withdrawn from Mataafa as soon as advices reach the islands, and •in that event it is not too much to hope there will then be a cessation of hostilities., Until the.representatives of the Powers at Samoa are officially informed that the whole position has been referred to a commission the warfare will, however,- ; probably continue. That cannot now be for long. Two gratifying circumstances illumine the gloomy record of our special commissioner's last despatch. One of these is the fact of the cordial co-operation of tho British and American forces, who, we are told,I.have been figh,ting shoulder to shoulder against the enemy,.,and .the other circumstance by; which the sadness of the narrative is relieved is, the conspicuous bravery displayed by those forces, many of whom.had never before been under fire.. . The dauntless gallantry of Lieutenant Lansdale, of the Philadelphia; . and the heroic self-sacri-fice of his devoted comrade,. Ensign Monaghan, were especially worthy of tho best traditions of the Anglo-Saxon race. As our correspondent has put it, tho American navy has lost two brave officers, but the American nation is the richer for a le'geiid that ivill live in history. ~'.■

The precise nature' of the concessions, if any, promisee! by the Premier to General Booth while the latter was in Wellington has not been disclosed. On the contrary, there is a puzzling conflict of statement as to what happened at their interview. General Booth is."eported to have said,at Sydney that the Government in this colony had promised to give the reformatory boys into the care of■.. the Salvation Army and also to give the Army grants for carrying on every side of its work. Any statement by General Booth will have been made in good faith on his part, and if ho actually said what our brief cable message credited him with saying that may be taken as representing the impression which was left on his mind by his conversation with the Premier. _It is incredible, however, that Mr Seddon can have committed the colony to the extent that General Booth implies. The versions that have reached us from Wellington of what transpired at the interview between General Booth and the Premier and of the subsequent conference between Commandant Booth arid the Cabinet by no. means bear out the statement attributed to General Booth. It is true that the Premier and his colleagues are saidto have expressed themselves as favourably inclined to the proposals which were submitted to them by the representatives of the Salvation Army, these proposals including an offer to provide reformatory homes for children in each of the chief centres in the colony, but it also appears that the Commandant was asked to submit his "proposals in Writing for the consideration of the Government. That consideration cannot yet have been given to them. Moreover, the Premier informed a deputation from a Women's Political League in Wellington a few days later tliat "it was not true that the Government was going to hand over the control;of certain charitable institutions to the Salvation Army, but if the Army established homes of its own, magistrates of course would have the power of committing children to them." That statement puts an entirely different complexion on the matter. The meaning to be read out of it must bo that tho Salvation Army reformatories would bo placed on the same footing as the private industrial schools which are in existence in the colony. These are three in number—St. Mary's, Ponsonby; St. Joseph's, Wellington ; and St. Mary's, Nelson, —each of them established by the Roman Catholic denomination and gazetted as a private school in terms of the Industrial Schools Act. Thero are two very good reasons, however, why such an arrangement as this is certainly not an arrangement that would bo acceptable to General Booth. One of these is contained in the provision of the Act that Kif any such school so approved as aforesaid shall bo supported for any one, or more than one, religious denomination exclusively, no child shall be sent to the same unless

ho shall belong to such denomination, or to one of such denominations, if more than one, mid every notice approving such school shall state the denomination or denominations, if any, for which the samo is supported." Tho other reason that would render tho arrangement contemplated by Mr Seddon utterly unattractive to General Booth is the consideration that these private industrial schools receive no subsidy, but are paid instead at tho rate of Is per head pef day for tho maintenance of the children, tho payment being made either by the Charitable Aid Board of the district 01 tho Education department, or the parents of the inmates. The control of reformatory children on such terms as theso would hardly bo coveted by tho Salvation Army. A grant of money from the public Treasury would be required by it. Grants for carrying, on ovory side, of the Army's work were, General Booth says, promised to ljim, and it is to the grants that he attaches particular imnorcance. The statement which has been .attributed to him is, however, quite inconsistent with tho statements on the same subject 'that have emanated from Wellington. We cannot believe that the Premier wou}d seriously propose to entrust to any religious organisation the management of a reformatory system in the colony. The care of criminal children, like the care of criminal adults, is one of the duties of the State, and, apart altogether from the. denominational view of the aspect, it would be a gravely improper thing for the State *to divest itself of its responsibilities in the matter. . '