SAMOAN MANDATE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20292, 28 December 1927, Page 12

SAMOAN MANDATE.

report to the commission. SIR JAMES PARR AT GENEVA. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 11.A whole day was spent by the Permanent Mandate Commission in examinm the report from the New Zealand Govm - ment on the Samoan mandate. Sir James Parr was closely questioned, and he was able to point out that the year had been an exceptional one for Samoa as regards the health, the education, and the social improvements of the natives. * notwithstanding the opposition to the Administrator’s rule and methods. The High Commissioner further pointed out that last year the death rate of the natives was lower, the birth rate higher, and there had been a greater increase in the native population than ever pieviouslv recorded The representatives for Portugal, Switzerland, and France spoke in very complimentary terms regarding these social improvements. As regards the report on the education of the natives, said Sir James, speaking yesterday of the conference, the members received' it also with great satisfaction. Madame Bugge-Wicksell, a well-known Swedish educational authority on tiro commission, spoke with enthusiasm on the subject. She complimented the New Zealand Government on the very full report and the excellent diagrams accompanying it illustrating the system of education. In addressing the commisson, Sir James Parr said there was no doubt that the position of a teacher in Samoa was not an easy one, cut off as he was from the rest of the world, and he was_ pleased that Madame Bugge-Wicksell realised this fact and appreciated what had been done, AGITATION AGAINST THE ADMINISTRATOR. The High Commissioner was also closely questioned regarding the political agitation in the islands. He gave the commission the views of the Government of New Zealand. Ho said he believed that General Richardson had been most forebearing (perhaps ton much so) in dealing with the five or six white moil who had created the agitation. He believed it would he found that General Richardson’s earnest desire to help the'natives had brought this opposition to his administration. General Richardson’s regulations for the marketing of copra had given the natives a better price than they were able to get from the white traders, and this was undoubtedly one of the main causes of the opposition. Tho rommissinn a3rood not tn discuss the Samoan agitation until they had received the report from the Commission of Inquiry that has recently sat in Shim.