SAMOA MORE PEACEFUL

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1930, Page 7

SAMOA MORE PEACEFUL

AN ENCOURAGING REPORT.

■MAU DYING OF INANITION.

An encouraging report of the situation in Western -Samoa is brought by a recent arrival from the territory, states The New Zealand Herald. Although the Mau chiefs have not responded to the request of the Administrator, made during the truce arranged at the time of the visit of the Hon. J. G. Cobbe, Minister of Defence, to . meet him .in conference, the organisation is offering no resistance of any kind to lawful authority. There may be occasional secret meetings of leaders, but whatever life remains in the movement is derived from the inspiration of the propaganda from New Zealand that arrives every mail. The police are still armed and maintain posts throughout the territory but there is not the slightest sign of active hostility, and in many places where the Mau was exceptionally strong the people show a disposition to co-operate with the officials. _ _ The women’s Mau is dying. On steamer days some of its members parade through Apia, but usually they are simply on their way to attend a fia fia or cricket match. The women’s Mau is generally ignored and is suffering the fate that usually follows that attitude by the public. A sign of its decay is that the Mau lava lava, formerly reserved for ceremonial occa-sions, is now often seen on women during their fishing or plantation work. The real interest of the Samoans today is the banana industry. They are establishing plantations everywhere, one Mau chief having planted 55 acres, and their urgent request is for an adequate supply of cases. Since the Tofua has successfully transported bananas from Samoa to New Zealand the trade has developed at a great rate and it is now much more important to /the natives than copra cutting. The present market price for copra varies from £4 13s 4d to £8 5s lOd. a ton at Apia, which is far too low to be attractive, especially in view of the fact that the price guarantee to the natives of American Samoa by the American Administration is £l3 15s. . Thus bananas provide the dominating interest in the mandated territory and the Mau is now quite a secondary consideration. It is understood that none of the banana money is sent to New Zealand to help the “cause.” As stated, propaganda from New Zealand is the only factor that is keeping the organisation half alive and the failure of the New Zealand headquarters to carry out its promises of success is having the inevitable affect.