SAMOAN ENQUIRY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19144, 29 October 1927, Page 15

SAMOAN ENQUIRY.

COUNSEL ADDRESS COMMISSION (PBESS ASSOCIATION.—BT WIBELZSS.) APIA,' October 27. The Royal Commission resumed today. The Administrator, General Sir George Richardson, recalled by the Commission, said that before Mr O. F. Nelson left for his tour in Australia there was never any serious political disagreement between them nor was the general question of banishments discussed between them.

Counsel are now addressing the Com mission.

Mr Meredith remarked that the evidence showed that the European members were guided by the Mau, and MiNelson led it by refusing to* pay taxes and not obeying the orders of the Government officials. A section of the community was defying the law, and was practically in a state of revolution. Mr Meredith, continuing, contended that the so-called banishments by the Administration were necessary as revolution was apparent, with the risk of bloodshed following if the position was not grappled with resolutely. He asserted that the Committee had substantiated no serious complaints, their grievances being mostly based en incomplete facts. Mr Baxter, of the Citizens' Committee, in a three hours' address, said it was unfair of the Administration to compete in the copra trade against the merchants who bad invested huge sums in the development of the trade. He admitted that the Committee's allegations with regard to the Administration's finances were erroneous in some respects, but not that they were deliberately erroneous. There hasl not been a tittle of evidence to show that the natives had been misled by these errors. He contended that striking evidence had been given by the natives, who had disputed the medical tax and the division of land. • He alleged that the Crown's tactless handling of the whole affair had changed an "ordinary situation into the existing state of affairs. The Commission was requested to ask the Now Zealand Government to lift the prohibition to some extent, and it was alleged there was nothing to warrant the wholesale banishment effected. The enquiry has ended.