LABOUR IN SAMOA

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 160, 1 April 1919, Page 5

LABOUR IN SAMOA

A DIFFICULT QUESTION. The problem of labour at Samoa was mentioned by the Acting-Prinie Minister (Sir James Allen) in the • course of a statement regarding Samoan affairs, published yesterday. The position is that the Imperial Government will not allow indentured labour to he brought to Samoa from • China or the Solomon Islands at the present time. Some of inden-tured-labourers who were at Samoa when tiie war began 'have had to be repatriated, their periods of service having expired, and at present there is a shortage of labour on tho plantations, though the trouble has not become acute. If New Zealand becomes finally .responsible for tho administration of Samoa, under the mandatory system laid down by tlvc Peace Conference, tho problem of labour is found to loom large. The natives of Samoa are not. willing to undertake regular work of the kind required by the planters. They will work in a leisurely way in tVir own time to satisfy their own needs, but the acceptance of a daily task with fixed hours is scathing entirely foreign to their ideas. The needs of. the Samoan are not many, nnd nature -provides for most, of them with a bountiful hand. The communal method of land tenure ensure? to every man food and shelter. The Samoan need not work to live, and that being so-, he usuallr climes not to work much at all.

Tho Germ w. usin<r rnmrher methods than anv British Administration wo»M ennlv, did not succeed in making the a profitable employe", and in default of iviHve work"=, Ihe punters wnre pinnlied "'ith indentured labour Chin", and the S'olemons. The system rtrnducd a.bu?e? and occasjo.nnilv ""andols,.lint it. spemi to have nrovSded tho Wxnit- fo~ the-dpv^onmPnt tho rfantatfo-o. But th« Imn«rinl Ooremmenf, as Sir-Tomes cfofp.q. efuvipil t l '" of in.rV.i( l , r p f ] W>OU". eud if is n.t lpj>=.tr rlnnMful if Onvprnmenf- m-mi l /! 1 ri.rn t n T "'ume it. "Hip rvijiif ~.(11 , ]n ' f or jhW-W .«.» f a t P cf Pamo?l j K-i sotHafl.

0-.;r> of the. cade hr '"e" IV ti's. snot is liat lct_->ur solved. in.Dart o.t least, bv tin. 'Jl-Hvi'iinlifiatinn of r.nfivn .land t.ii! ra . ""hr l idea tin's iiranceai U filet "*■ nMiTjj. wh«n nasiis&n.. of hi? -toe of tUe ancsi-al !-.nd. wcoM Wr- * .rsara-earM=. cither JjoeaaaaJho ■0 iwsrovo his S-iincial . "•""."0 ho had cartrj fiis.Jland '>•"1 corae unrW sour cf "crs ajrain ttnre is. n cyestioiL.of noliev ,Tho. uUusntft ..resale c£ tlie ind: vii'w.Hon—ol_ Isr.d. «ilas in.Setcra' v to. denriv" nin«£ of the "liivs of .their land. 1 The Samoa nris J»xWw_Tk(t island *>-. -5.' yr<Jr.BrctVwnff tiiß'-i.soccs.-rJi cornea "" .«raa*tw ;s> find. tiav _cre Cir»b!£_«!so '£t ssafoehir Zz->. E-cf.l is rixlu.cad iia cUaata-Tiir u ." r :rarlr iqod_frocn iia. rscairi of vieman who trisliw jo set i3u> bcai "°rlt: te. the f-ilidratka of the soil. ""oblim hii®_ff,ot .to tc CJTSSI .befcre. Saratvi can produce to it? "'''l (Minncitv.