SAMOAN ADMINISTRATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20800, 20 August 1929, Page 8

SAMOAN ADMINISTRATION.

The animal report on the administration of Western Samoa will not furnish the members of the Permanent Mandates Commission at Geneva, to whom it has already been forwarded, with anything in the shape of sensational reading. The past year has not been productive of any seriously untoward political developments in the territory, though it unfortunately cannot be recorded that the Man has yet been brought to a'reasonable frame of mind. Discussing the unrest the Administrator admits—or admitted at the date when his report was prepared—that, while the attitude qf the Man is more subdued than it was, the same difficulty in dealing with it persists. While observing that a by no means satisfactory position is thus created; he deprecates exaggeration of the difficulties of the present situation. In the June issue of the Round Table the contributor of .the New Zealand article, after expressing his regret that it is not yet possible to omit from it any reference to the vexed question of Samoa, goes on to. say: “Meanwhile the rhinoceros beetle and the weed grow apace in the plantations,' the revenue of the country has shrunk alarmingly,, and the - native children throughout the affected region are

being kept away from the schools and medical services provided for their benefit at the expense of the New Zealand Government.” That is a somewhat discouraging view of the situation to circulate abroad, but it is not borne out in the main by the official review. While, on account of the attitude of the Man, the revenue from native taxes was rather less than onethird of the estimate for the year that ended in March last, there is no reflection in the returns of the “ alarming ” position that was suggested in respect of the revenue. The trade of the territory, shows a very healthy increase, and the revenue for the past financial year was appreciably better than that for the preceding year. Nor is the statement that the native children are being kept away from school verified by the official statistics. The number of pupils enrolled at the end of March last and the average attendance at that date both showed a substantial improvement on the figures for the beginning of the year and a corresponding percentage of increase. The average attendance bears to the roll-number no relation that can be regarded as extraordinarily low. The withdrawals of children from the schools would appear to have been but spasmodic. The Administrator emphasises the point that despite the diminution in the Native tax receipts the activities on behalf of the Samoan population in the way of education and medical treatment have been fully maintained, while the report upon the health of the community is that it has been excellent. There would seem to be ample justification for the official claim that, save for the collection of the native taxes, the Administration may be regarded as functioning with reasonable efficiency. The official statement that, with negligible exceptions, the country is quiet and orderly, is borne out, of course, by the absence of news of any serious disturbances in Samoa—a fact that in itself seems to suggest that the political unrest, though still presenting a problem, is less pronounced than it has been. Were the leaders of the Mau left to their own counsels and preserved from external influence there might be a better prospect of their abandonment of the unfortunate attitude which they have assumed. The circulation in Samoa of a publication issued in New Zealand that is antagonistic to the Samoan Administration doubtless contributes to keep the disaffection alive in the territory. But it is satisfactory to note that the trading figures for the past year show that the Man movement has had no seriously detrimental effect upon the material prosperity of the natives or upon that of the country as a whole.