The Samoans still use an outrigger canoe not dissimilar to the type used by the Maoris of the great fleet of 1350. (NPS Photograph) In our last issue, Professor Davidson of the Australian National University explained traditional Samoan leadership and how it works. Soon these leaders will run an independent Samoa. This article, specially written for Te Ao Hou, describes the shape of this new Polynesian State. LEADERSHIP IN WESTERN SAMOA by Prof. J. W. Davidson

Part II POLITICAL ADVANCEMENT During the past ten years the people of Western Samoa have made rapid strides towards self-government. If present plans are carried out—as they almost certainly will be—the Samoans will in 1960 obtain full control of their government, except in relation to a few matters such as external affairs which they have agreed should be left with New Zealand. The present period of political development began in 1947, when, after discussions with Samoan leaders and with a mission from the United Nations, the New Zealand Government announced a comprehensive plan. Its basic aims were as follows: to ensure that the Samoans should feel that the new government was their government, representing their own ideas and interests; to give as much power as seemed possible at the time to Samoan representatives; and to lay the foundations for a gradual transfer of authority from New Zealand as the Samoans gained experience of the new system. A Council of State was set up consisting of a High Commissioner, as head of the Government, and two Fautua representing the Samoan people. Its members jointly represent the Samoan Government on all formal occasions; they symbolise, in other words, the dignity and the unity of Western Samoa. The Fau-