OPPOSITION LEADER

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 121, 20 February 1928, Page 6

OPPOSITION LEADER

TOURING THE NORTH MORE ABOUT SAMOA By Telegraph.—Press Association. Whangarei, February 19. Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, addressed a political gathering in Whangarei on Saturday evening, dealing with the land question, unemployment, and the situation in Samoa. At the conclusion a vote of thanks and confidence in the selected Labour candidate for the electorate was carried. The speaker reviewed the recent history of Samoa and events leading up to tlie present crisis and faults in tlie Administration and the illegality of administrative acts, alleging General Richardson’s temperamental unfitness for his post, and recalling the bitterness Samoans still felt concerning the influenza epidemic, when over 8000 died. On top of that had been established a military dictatorship. The native repudiation of the Fono of Faipules nominated by the Administrator, the limitation of European franchise, a breach of the peace by the Chief Judge, the formation and objects of the Mau, and sentences of banishment, imprisonment, and deportation were all touched upon. It had been said Labour was siding with the traders against the interests of the natives, but the party was only concerned about giving all the right of trial. Prohibition and copra were quoted as the root causes of the trouble, but out of 13.000 tons of copra in one year the Administrator had handled only 100 tons. Labour would nationalise the copra industrv and would never consent to the introduction of liquor among Samoans.

The Leader of the Opposition proceeded to give revelations concerning the “Foster case.” This man. he said, had committed unnameable offences in Samoa, and he had been sent back to New Zealand. The Administrator had notified the New Zealand Government of the nature of the offences Foster had committed there. Notwithstanding this warnin'!, he had been allowed to take a responsible position in Papanui, where he had again committed similar crimes, ending with the murder of his wife and suicide. The Government had not dared to permit an investigation into this business. Tlie case of an official in Samoa who committed suicide was also mentioned. On the day the Labour Partv came into power <iv-ry banishment order would be recalled and every man given the same right to oppose the Government by constitutional means. “Our methods in Samoa.” concluded Mr. Holland, “are not British. They would indeed be discreditable to the readme of Bismarck.” Mr. Holland addressed a meeting similarlv at Russell on Friday. He spoke at Pukelmia in the evening, and goes to Dargaville to-morrow.