WESTERN SAMOA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20990, 1 April 1930, Page 6

WESTERN SAMOA.

THE MAU ORGANISATION. LACK OF ADMINISTRATIVE FIRMNESS. Written for the Otago Daily Timso. By Our. Sveciat, Correspondent. 111. Early iu 1929 the Man became more aggrfessivc, In February turn heavy logs were placed across the road near the cemetery, a civilian motor driver being impeded. Boys removed the obstruction for him, hut on the road to tho power house his car smashed into a piece of barbed wire stretched across. Natives later said that the road was theirs. In the same month Vaimoso heard a rumour of an impending raid by the police for wanted men, supposed to be hiding in the bush at Magiagi. In tho early morning the police .party met a Mau party marching in the same direction. Asked what brought them out, the chief said that they were taking early morning exercise in the same manner ns the military police. ROAD OBSTRUCTIONS AND STONES. In March Mau restrictions on road traffic through Vaimoso were in operation. Logs were used to stop the traffic, and there was stone throwing against European cars. In regard to Samoan stone throwing, it must bo understood that it is a kind of art. It is not a case of throwing harmless pebbles, but stones often as big as a man’s fist, or bigger, and throwing them with remarkable accuracy —accuracy indicated by the fact that when a recent tourist wished to secure a ripe cocoa-pod hanging to a thin branch 15 feet from the ground the driver of the car threw one stone and brought it down. And if there is any further doubt ns to the danger created by atone throwing one may n.cntion j fact that a European motor vehicle-used for the transport of milk to Apia every day had to be covered in completely with wire netting to,catch the stones and protect the driver from injury. In April there was a Alan march through Apia early in the morning, evidently with the intention of “showing the flag.” Mau fonos were more or less continuous, and there were tegular collections of money for the cause.. Most of tho money was sent to New Zealand/ As already mentioned, there was some disappointment expressed over the niggardly contributions of New Zeah-nd Europeans, of whom one chief remarked they were supporting only in talk. A FIGHT IN BEACH ROAD On the King's Birthday the Mau paraded. Faurauina in a speech said they had learned that they were neither protected by the laws of the King nor accounted as British subjects. However, they were there to honour the King. There was marching on June 14, On June 15 there was a struggle between the police and the Man on the occasion ot Talflgoa's arrest. In Beach road, opposite the Roman Catholic Cathedral, a : European police sergeant received a smashing blow across the month from a baton, and the situation looked very ugly indeed when European priests from the Catholic mission appeared and helped to pacify the crowd. On this occasion Fam.uina endeavoured to restore order. Following this episode the first arming order for the police was issued, but the orders distinctly were that revolvers were to be used only as a last resource and in defence of life. Another ugly situation developed on June 22 near Vaitclc. when a Samoan for whose arrest a warrant had been issued was pursued by the police into a mangrove swamp. The native, n man of 16 stone, simply subsided in the mud, and all the efforts of the policemen could not dislodge him. Samoan women floundered into the mud, threw themselves on the native and helped to hold him down. The police sent for ropes with the idea of dragging the man out, but a strong Mau parly arrived, menacing them with knives and batons, and in the turmoil the wanted man escaped by means of n canoe brought across the lagoon. The police were thus left standing in the mud with revolvers drawn and the excited Mau party around them, and there might have been another sequel had reinforcements not arrived. NATIVE CONSTABLE BEATEN. _ There was a sequel to the Beach road riot. Revenge was wreaked on a native constable. _ He was accosted on the public highway in Apia, assaulted by a dozen members of the Mau, and was left with a broken jaw and a well-beaten body. . Notwithstanding these episodes, the Administration used every endeavour to prevent any action that might further in- , cite the Alan. There was an order on August 20 that firearms were to he carried by the police only when specially ordered. There is abundant evidence throughout of European incitement of tho Mau. In many subtle little ways the flame was kept funned in a manner which even the " beach ” docs not know. Tho “ beach,’' however, is not the whole beach. The majority of traders and the representatives of trading firms were, and still are, opponents of the Man. but owing to tho fact that it had become powerful, that it had been taught the art of boycott, and that future business might be largely affected by open opposition, there was a great deal of apparent neutrality. ATTITUDE OF TRADING INTERESTS. To-day one finds what seems to be a surprising degree of reticence that :a quite well understood. It does not follow that these neutrals are supporters of the Administration, even though they may realise that the Mau movement is contrary to their own individual interests, but of the majority one would say that their feeling of hopelessness in the present Administration i B due mainly to the fact that they believe that as long as Samoa remains a political catspaw in New Zealand so long_ will there be unrest in Samoa. It is for that reason that the majority, if not all, would vote if they had the opportunity against New Zealand continuing to hold the mandate and would welcome the Colonial Office taking it over, but there are one or two notable excentions. One man, for instance, would oppose a change to the Colonial Office because of hie fear that it might introduce Indian labour and thus sound the death knell of the Samoan race.

In November of 1929 there was 'still a hope that the Mau might wane through lack of driving force. There were signs of this. But the needful stimulus came with the return of Faumuina and Tuimaiettliifono from New Zealand with promises of early victory through the instrumentality of the Labour Party.