THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1928. THE SAMOAN DEPORTATIONS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20315, 25 January 1928, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1928. THE SAMOAN DEPORTATIONS.

The long and belated statement which the Prime Minister has issued in order to dispel the “ misapprehension throughout the country as to the reasons underlying the'Government’s action in approving of the deportation from Samoa oi Messrs Nelson, Gurr, and Smyth ” seems likely to leave the wisdom and even the justice of the action still in doubt. The existence in the mandated territory of an “ unfortunate state of affairs,” exemplified in a “ passive resistance to constituted authority ” on the part of a section of th_j Samoans, may he—apparently, must be—fully acknowledged. It may also be agreed that the activities of the organisation known as the Mau are at the bottom of this, and that the Europeans, who have been deported, were prominently associated with the Mau. Nor is there any question about the power of the Administrator, with the endorsement of the Government in New Zealand, to deport persons who are “preventing or hindering the due performance by the Government of its functions or duties under the mandate or the due administration of the executive government of the territory.” There was no need, therefore, for Mr Coates to labour this point in the way it was laboured by him in his statement. The question remains, however, whether the circumstances justified the exercise in this instance of the power of deportation. It is not raised because, as Mr Coates would infer, ot any solicitude for Mr Nelson and his European colleagues. They may be most objectionable individuals, and it is quite conceivable that Samoa may be all the better for being rid of their presence. It is not because of any concern whatever for them, but because of a concern for the reputation of the mandated authority for fair dealing and sagacious administration that there has been a practically unanimous demand on the part of the press of the Dominion for an explanation of the drastic action that has been taken by the Administrator and ratified by the Government. A view that strongly suggests itself is that the result of the investigations by the Royal Commission should have had the effect of clearing the air in Samoa and of providing the opportunity for cleaning the slate. The Commission was appointed in consequence of complaints that had been made against the Administration. Its report was a handsome exoneration of the Administration from the allegations that had been brought against it. The report ot the Commission was issued to the public early in December. Within three weeks Mr Nelson and his colleagues were ordered to show cause why they should not be deported. Mr Coates states that the deportation was “ not in the strict sense of the term a judicial act.” The provision of the law under which the persons who were threatened with deportation were entitled to show cause does, however, clearly give to the deportation the colour, if not the actual character, of a judicial act. That, however, may be neither here nor there. The summons to show cause may have been a mere formality. The mind of the Administration that the deportations should be carried out may have been completely made up before the summonses were delivered. Apparently it was on account of acts committed prior to the investigations by the Royal Commission —acts that, as far as can be gathered, were not specified—that the deportations were ordered. The Administration had, however, been fortified by the report of the Commission. The opponents of the Administration had themselves expressed confidence in the personnel of the Commission. In these circumstances, it would seem that the report of the Commission presented the Administration with the chance of generously overlooking the mischievous agitation oi previous months conditionally upon its being accorded active support in the prosecution of its programme for the advancement of the welfare of the native population, and thus of uniting a people which is, Mr Coates says, at present seriously disunited.

DR HILL’S VISIT. Thu visit to Dunedin of Dr Hill, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, was not the less a matter for gratification because of its unexpectedness. The people of Dunedin may feel some satisfaction over the fact that their city, instead of being excluded from Dr Hill’s tour altogether, as was originally contemplated by those who drew up the itinerary, was actually the first of the large centres to give him welcome and to receive his interested attention. The brevity of his stay did not prevent Dr Hill from seeing much of Dunedin and its environs, and his impressions as a whole have been expressed in terms which are not calculated to diminish the proper civic pride of this community. Dr Hiil is before everything a botanist, and testimony to the value of the plan upon which the Dunedin Botanic Gardens are laid out and maintained, of course, possesses peculiar force when it comes from the director of an institution so famous as Kew Gardens, regarded as they are by those in a position to judge as unrivalled in the world. Dr Hill was particularly impressed, it would appear, by the collection of native trees and shrubs which constitute a feature of the local Gardens, and he has spoken of this as in some ways far more interesting than anything of the kind yet seen by him in the Southern Hemisphere. Very pertinent were his remarks upon the wisdom, from an educational point of view, of the development of botanical gardens along national lines. Dunedin, which, but for timely protest, Dr Hill would presumably have had no official opportunity of visiting, has been able to give him his first introduction to a representative collection of the native flora of New Zealand. The tour upon which he is engaged is one only of a series promoted by the Empire Marketing Board with a view to the study of the botanical resources of the Empire. Dr Hill concedes that these missions may not be productive of immediate tangible results, but it is evidently his deep-seated conviction that much benefit will accrue from them, and nobody is likely to offer any suggestion to the contrary on that point. The botany of the Empire offers a vast field for study, and as Dr Hill has observed, the cumulative effect of the researches that have beeil instituted, with the countless side-issues introduced, must be enormous, however difficult it may be to measure it at present. Dr Hill has given specific instances of the benefit which many parts of the Empire have been able to derive from the operations carried on at Kew, where a large staff of botanists and scientific workers is engaged. It is well that as a community we should be more thoroughly enlightened respecting the place which the “ maternal institution ” at Kew takes in giving a botanical lead to the Empire. The visit of its director should give a perceptible stimulus to the study of botany and to research in our own country, and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research will naturally be desirous of turning it to the best account.