Governing Samoans

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 977, 21 May 1930, Page 10

Governing Samoans

“MARTINET AS MUCH OUT OF PLACE AS A CENTRAL HEATER” THE trouble in Samoa (observes tbe London "Times Weekly Edition,” on April 17) lias been primarily a conflict of temperaments. "In short, successful rule in Samoa is chiefly a matter of touch. Nature has done so much for the Samoans that there is no need of the regimentation that less fortunate peoples must endure, and the martinet is as much out of place as the central heater.”

On the art of governing Samoans, “The Times Weekly Edition” says: “As the impressions of a Rhodes Travelling Fellow suggest, there has always been a lighter, often a fantastic side to the campaign against the New Zealand Administration, which has redeemed episodes that read overiieavily in print. The Administrator and the Samoans are now pledged to make a new start together, frankly changing those arrangements—in particular the constitution of the advisory Parliament, or Fono of Faipules—which have worked badly in the past. The trouble has been primarily a conflict of temperaments. In the early days of the mandate the New Zealand Administration made powerful enemies among the copra merchants by raising the price paid to the native producers. But those enemies would not have achieved their success if there had not been a good deal that was uncongenial to the Samoans in the methods and manners of their new rulers. •SAMOANS’ DEEP PRIDE A recent commission from New Zealand has criticised in outspoken terms the manner in which Government appointments in Samoa were filled in the early days of the mandate. The concrete results —in the way of health improvement for instance —that won tor New Zealand special compliments from the Mandates Commission, had their unfortunate side when zeal for measurable triumphs led to haste and impatience with cherished and traditional Samoan ways. Samoans are not alone in being temperamental in the Presence of social reformers bent on their improvement, but their recalcitrance has been an irritating mystery to many New Zealanders conscious that their country is endeavouring, at considerable expense, to establish a high tradition of disinterested rule. There is special significance in the expressed opinion of Sir Apirana Ngata, the Maori statesman, that, if only the dignity of both parties can be saved, all should yet be well. It was probably the successful avoidance cf any Maori problem in New Zealand that made the Administration overconfident about Samoa, and certainly too little attention seems to have been

paid to the punctilios which the Samoans, separated from the Maoris for a thousand years, have developed and cherish, for their sunny good nature is combined with a deep pride. In short, successful rule in Samoa is chiefly a matter of touch. Nature has done so much for the Samoans that there is no need of the regimentation that less fortunate people-must endure, and the martinet is as much out of place as the central heater. RIGHT THING IN WRONG WAY

If lovers of round statements can say that the rule of New Zealand has been the right thing being done in the wrong way, they can also say that American Samoa shows the wrong thing being done in the right way. Theoretically direct rule by the American Navy sounds unpromising. It migh have been expected to lead to all sorts of trouble analogous to the troubles that have so commonly followed the appearance of American marines as the Government in various parts of the Caribbean. As a matter of fact, things have gone remarkably well in American Samoa, and it is probable that more elaborate and orthodox constitutional arrangements would have produced less happy results by creating a number of new relationships each with its possibilities for the taking of umbrage and the giving of offence. If New Zealand may hope to be emerging from her troubles in Samoa, America has still to steer clear of the danger of creating gratuitous troubles for herself. The tide is set strongly in' the United States today in the direction of organising everything as thoroughly and scientifically as possible, and Samoa could not expect to escape indefinitely. There are plenty of theorists, longing to play with Samoa, from whom the strong arip of the United States Navy has so far protected the islanders. Congress has now appointed a committee, headed by two distinguished senators, to look into the constitutional anomaly of Samoa and to rtrive to better what is already well. But commonsense is not likely drastically to alter, for no compelling reason, arrangements which seem to suit a people at once so delightful and so incalculable.