WESTERN SAMOA

Wairarapa Daily Times, 16 September 1936, Page 5

WESTERN SAMOA

ADMINISTRATION CRITICISED. (Received Wednesday, 10.20 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Oay. Mr R. W. Robson, editor of the “Pacific Islands Monthly,” in an address to the Polynesian Club, criticised the administration of Western Samoa by the. New Zealand Government, and said that while in Samoa recently he. heard much talk among non-official Europeans and among half-castes of a desire to be separated from New Zealand and attached to the administration of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific (British Colonial Office), whose headquarters were at Suva. Mr Robson added: —“The goodwill mission that was sent to Western Samoa recently by the New Zealand Government had made confusion in the island worse confounded. The. mission had promised the Mau many concessions and reforms, but there would be trouble when the natives realised that the gesture did not mean self-government. Nothing was done to provide for the future of 3500 halfcastes whose hatred for New Zealand was responsible for much, of the trouble.

Mr R. W. Robson was Managing-Edi-tor of the “Wairarapa Daily Times,” Masterton, about 25 years ago.