The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1929 TROUBLE IN SAMOA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 858, 30 December 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1929 TROUBLE IN SAMOA

AFTER, a year of comparative quiet, the political troubles iu “ Samoa have been renewed in a fashion tragic to the participants and disconcerting’ to the many New Zealanders who have believed that friction in the mandated territory was gradually dying away. The disorder that occurred at Apia yesterday was accompanied by the loss of seven lives and is the worst outbreak in the history of the present trouble. It apparently originated from one of those gala occasions by which the Man, like so many native political organisations, delights in exhibiting its strength and unity, and the fact that the subsequent bloodshed sprang from official efforts to apprehend natives “wanted” for the comparatively trifling offence of non-payment of poll-tax, a levy now abolished, at least demonstrates that there is still a passionate sincerity behind the movement. Unfortunately, this element of sincerity, which in a lessenlightened race than the Samoans would be called fanaticism, lias been consistently and almost deliberately overlooked by every New Zealand politician who has endeavoured to grapple with the problem. Both the Coates Government and the Ward Government have done their utmost in a limited-sort of manner to bring some sort of peace and security to Samoa, but the fact that, months after the execution of the drastic strategy by which the trouble was to be ended, it can still flame up again with calamitous results, shows that it springs from deep-seated causes which apparently cannot be mended without the initiation of a new and broader, more humane and generous policy of sympathy and concessions. The sole .justification for what struck many thoughtful people as an abrogation of British justice, the deportation of three leading citizens of the Samoan community, was the confident claim that their enforced absence from the island would permit raw feelings to subside, and thus introduce a new era of harmony. This claim lias failed miserably. After two years in which none of the banished trio, Messrs. Nelson, Gurr and Smyth, have set foot in the islands, the Man is stronger than ever, and more fervently pledged to its cause. The difficulty in classifying this powerful institution, undoubtedly representative -—in spite of official assertions to the contrary—of the bulk of native feeling in Samoa, is that it is not a lawless organisation in the usual sense of the word. It has on more than one occasion, as the Inspector of Police, Mr. Braisby, testified in the course of a recent action, actually assisted the police in the maintenance of order. It did so on the recent occasion of the Chinese riot, which was a “tong” outbreak, and had no concern with the current political disturbances. But in defence of its own principles, and in protection of those of its members who are still being implacably pursued on civil claims, the Mau is a militant body, capable of precipitating serious conflict and of shattering the peace of the community. The direction in which punitive measures for the latest outbreak will be enforced demands from the New Zealand Government a decision in which the fullest tact and diplomacy, and, at the same time, the highest regard for law and order and the safety of life and property, must be weighed. In the present Administrator New Zealand has a representative whose skilful handling of the difficult situation that has existed since he took over his post has allowed the present Prime Minister to make periodical optimistic assurances that the troublesome elements ivere being subdued. Unfortunately, Colonel Allen has not been invested with power to remove the underlying causes of the disaffection. The obnoxious poll-tax of 36s a head lias been repealed, but those who earlier refused to pay it are still harried by threats of arrest. It is admitted that the tax was wrong in principle, but the New Zealand Government, through its local representatives, is still waging its hopeless task of collecting the outstanding levies, and in the meantime the economic position of Samoa is not improving. THE BRIGHT SIDE NEW ZEALAND is just beginning to feel the inevitable pressure of universally declining- produce prices. Wool returns have dropped away, butter and cheese face a falling market, and there is less clamour for New Zealand meat at easier prices. This pressure comes not in the form of retribution for any of this country’s industrial misdeeds. Its influence is world-wide. Its manifestation has been foreshadowed for some time. Reviewing the results of recent marketing operations, many producers arc inclined to derive nothing but discomfort from the survey. Looking forward to the new calendar year which begins on Wednesday, they vision only gloom for the coming season. In reality, however, there are few signs upon the horizon of our agricultural and pastoral production to induce this sorry state of mind. Actually the producers’ New Year should begin with bright hopes for 12 months of expansion and of material progress, for there is every indication that our exportable goods are in a state of increasingly robust health rather than suffering the pale sickness of retrogression. The lesson of lower prices is to be gained largely by a recognition of the fact that, although the immediate figure realised for wool at recent sales portends a drop of several pence over the season’s clip, as compared with last year’s yield, the steadily expanding volume of production, not only in wool, but in meat-raising and in butter and cheese manufacture, has placed this Dominion upon the high road of material and permanent advancement. The sedulous application of scientific methods to soil treatment and all forms of production, coupled with the natural expansion of the industries of the land, lias so increased the aggregate output that the future cannot be estimated in mere numerals. In 15 years, our butter exports have risen by 500 per cent; recent figures in truth show phenomenal progress. Cheese exports increased in the same period by 300 per cent. In two years the sheep flocks of the Dominion increased by three and a-quarter million; in Auckland Province alone there are half a million more sheep than there were two years ago. The lambing figures, reported from Wellington at the week-end, are 1,100,000 greater than the previous record, or au increase of 10 per cent, on those of last year. Only comparatively recently has New Zealand realised the full value of fertilisers as an element in pastoral production. Yet every day more and more tracts of our land are being brought into cultivation—quietly, but upon sound methods of settlement—each new section adding to the swelling volume of output. Increased production as it is being undertaken throughout this country today should provide inspiration for the farmer. The future, far from being gloomy, is heavy with the hope of better times. .