NEW ZEALAND, AND SAMOA

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 24

NEW ZEALAND, AND SAMOA

AD MIN ISTRATION CON D EMNED. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, March 9. A sweeping condemnation of the New Zealand administration of the mandated territory of Samoa has just been expressed by a 38 years resident of the group (Mr H. E. Rea), w»ho is visiting Sydney. Asserting that the administration was a “ hopeless failure,” Mr Rea said that there appeared to bo a general impression that prohibition was at the root of the white residents’ grievances. “That is quite a mistake,’'’ he said, »“ though prohibition is naturally a very sore point. What the residents complain of is the gross mismanagement of the group by a veritable army of inexperienced officials, the large majority of whom have only taken Government positions there in order to spend a holiday. Public money is being wasted right and left, and taxation has increased enormously. With but few exceptions the officials are square pegs in round holes, this applying particularly to those put in charge of the various plantations that the Government has on its hands. Samoa, the pearl of the Pacific, was a place that until a few’ years ago smiled with prosperity, but to-day it is in a very unhappy condition. And I have no hesitation in declaring that the New Zealand administration, foisted upon this fair group, has been as a withering blight.” “ The New Zealand officials altogether lack prestige, and many of them are despised by the Samoans, a proud, sensitive race of people, who resent having uneducated men —whose only qualification is that they are returned soldiers —put in authority over them. There is growing up in consequence a contempt for the whites generally; There is much disaffection among the natives. Once upon a time the Samoan looked up to the white man ; now he looks down on him.” Air Rea declared that prohibition was quite unnecessary, and was not in accordance with the mandate, which only provided that “intoxicants shall not be supplied to natives.” The natives, as a matter of fact, had never been addicted to any other liquor than their own kava. He had rarely, even in the pre-piohihitiou days, seen a white man under the influence of liquor in Apia, except when crews of ships, and especially men-o’-war, came ashore. Prohibition was a hardship on those accustomed to their “nip,” and had already had too many evils from which Samoa had been free before. The plantations in which* the Germans had taken so great a pride had for the most part gone to ruin. Al) sorts and conditions of men, with not the slightest experience of tropical agriculture, had been put in charge, and the result was that the plantations had got into such a condition that it was difficult to lease them at any price.” “Never will Samoa do any good under New Zealand administration,” Air Rea declared emphatically, in conclusion. “The only solution of the mess the place is in is for the British Government to take over the mandate, ami appoint Colonial Office men. That is what the people of Samoa want. They want a clean sweep of the present , officials.”