HOW SAMOAN TROUBLE COULD BE SETTLED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 4 January 1930, Page 15

HOW SAMOAN TROUBLE COULD BE SETTLED.

MR M'COMBS SAYS A BROTHER MEMBER SHOULD HAVE THE JOB.

(By JAMES M'COMBS, M.P.). I know the man who could solve the Samoan difficulty for us: and if I were Prime Minister I would send back all the generals and the military and appoint Mr E. J. Howard. M.P., as Ad* ministrator. Mr Howard understands and loves the natives. What we want is a man saturated with the idealism of Stevenson. A Bad Bargain. The taking over of the Samoan plantations as part of our share of the war indemnity was a bad piece of business so far as New Zealand was concerned. The plantations are worthless without cheap indentured Chinese lab our, arid there are millions of acres in New Zealand that might be deemed to be valuable if cheap slave labour were possible, but such would not be tolerated in New Zealand. While the war was on. and before New Zealand was given the mandate, the British Government again and again urged, nay, almost commanded, that the Chinese should be repatriated. Even now, in order that the Chinese may be recruited in China, or carried in British boats, we have to resort to the miserable subterfuge of engaging Chinese free labour and indenturing them after they arrive in New Zealand mandated territory. There is no indentured labour in American Samoa, nor in the Tongan group of islands. A native queen rules in the Kingdom of Tonga, and it is stated that in educational matters a larger proportion of the Tongan population are up to matriculation standard than in New Zealand. Indentured labour did exist, but has now been abolished in that delightful and happy .kingdom. The Queen has her Cabinet, but behind the Queen and the native Cabinet are efficient, unobtrusive British officials representing the Colonial Office. These officials have wide experience and centuries of tradition to guide them in their delicate task. Mcr© Self-Government.

The Samoans should be given a larger measure of self-government. Complete self-government may be impossible at present, because it would result in the dominance of the natives by the crafty European and half-caste traders. These traders, and especially the planters, have no objection to indentured. labour, but some of them, for reasons of their own, have been responsible for stirring up the native discontent. However mistaken some of the administrative acts have been, it can at least be truthfully said that the New Zealand Administration has tried to protect the natives against exploitation by the traders. The Reform Government made a number of mistakes, and Sir Joseph Ward has tried to remedy some of them: but the big mistake remains that there is far too much government and military rule in Samoa. A head tax has always been distasteful wherever it has been tried, whether in Africa or elsewhere, and we should have profited by the experience of other Governments and other Administrations that have long since abolished the head tax, together with indentured labour. Sir Joseph Ward abolished the personal tax of £2 per head for chiefs and 36s per head for other male adult Samoans, but what is wanted is less government and less military rule. An Avoidable Calamity. We must all sincerely regret, and none more than Sir Joseph Ward, the recent happening in Samoa, which resulted in the death of one of the military police and a number of natives, including the High Chief Tamasese. This calamity should have been avoided. The Samoans are a lovable people, with delightful institutions and traditions—children of the tropics, dignified and docile, and not fierce warriors like our Maori neighbours were. I was with Mr Howard in Samoa on the Parliamentary trip, and I was surprised at his knowledge of the history of Samoa and his insight into the native mind and the native customs. And I am convinced that he would prove an ideal Administrator for Samoa. To ; be successful, administrators, or should I say ministrators, we must secure the consent by inviting the co-operation of the governed, and I know of no man better qualified to accomplish this delicate task than Mr Howard.