SAMOA

Hokitika Guardian, 30 April 1921, Page 4

SAMOA

SETTLERS’ GRIEVANCES. AGAINST NEW ZEALAND’S MANDATE. FEDERATION OF ISLANDS FAVOURED. (Sydney Herald). When the Allies conquered Germany’s rich outposts and were charged with the responsibility of their future government they handed Samoa over to the control of Now Zealand. The fact that it was taking one of the gems of the Great Pacific under its parental wing delighted the dominion, because of the victory of its arms there and the sentimental ties that that triumph had created. It was an experiment, and Samoa awaited the operation of it with curious interest. Then it became in turn sceptical and perturbed; until today, if one may judge from the views of probably the oldest white inhabitant of Samoa (Mr H. J. Moors), whose extensive trading interests in both American and British Samoa, and whose 17 years of rusidenco there, entitled him to speak with authority, Samoa is very dissatisfied with New Zealand control there.

An American by birth .who disclaims any partisan feeling by pointing out that this mandated territory would he equally unworkable under the American Mr Moors speaks without hitternoss when he says that ns long ns New Zealand controls Samoa there can he nothing but disaster tor that rich outpost. He feels, along with the rest of the people there, apparently, that the only affinity between Now Zealand and Samoa is based purely oil sentimental grounds, and that when it comes down to sound business, sentiment flies out of the window. Samoa, he says, is slowly hut surely slipping back. What is the remedy? Mr Moor meets this question with the view that Samoa will never prosper under colonial control, and that tho only hope for it is control under the British flag, and under a federation of the neighbouring islands with the capital at Suva.

LABOUR PROBLEM. Mr Moors, who arrived in Sydney by the Taiyuan from Hongkong, proceeded direct from Samoa to New Zealand t,o ascertain, if possible, what the dominion was doing to replenish labour supplies in Samoa. He says it is only with cheap labour for the cultivation of its cheap tropical products, if they are to be kept at a purcliaseablc price, that Samoa can prosper, and that its badly needed requirements in that regard can never he met under the present control. “New Zealand control” lie says, ‘has few wellwishers in Samoa, even among the natives, who are specially prejudiced against it because of the fact that the influenza epidemic was allowed to sweep into it haphazard, with the loss of 8000 people, or over 20 per cent, of the population, in a few tragic, months. The natives contrasted with New Zealand’s attitude during the epidemic the measures adopted in American Samoa to fight the disease, and they have not forgotten.

“The only hope for Samoa is control within a federation of say, Fiji. Tonga, some of the Cook Islands, and other groups, with the capital at Suva under the British (lag, the federation to he answerable, not to any form of colonial control, hut to the home authorities.” Only then, says Mr Moors, would they get rid of “the interferences of the Labour theorists in New Zealand, who want to introduce impossible ideas into this big territory.” He feels that under some form of island federation, acknowledging tho British and the home authorities, the affairs of the groups within it could be discussed in common council by men thoroughly intimate with their special needs and peculiarities. New Zealand control, ho says with emphasis, is only accentuating an economical position which is anything hut bright in Samoa. He points for instance, to the tremendous decline in the value of copra, to the fact that cocoa is unsaleable just now, and to the price of rubber so low that it cannot he tapped. Hi short, not only is there very little output, hut the value of it is very low. New Zealand’s trade with Samoa ho says, was always small, and is today smaller than ever. It is, according to Mr Moors, a. straight-out question of cheap, indentured labour, to meet conditions in separable from the cultivation of cheap tropical produce, or, in the alternative, a question of importing , a whole free population, which would involve a. tremendous expenditure. Prices at present, however, are so low that he doubts if any big

advance could ho made even with indentured labour, the importation of which is opposed by the Labour element in New Zealand,

TARIFF ANOMALIES. ! Samoa, it appears, has another grudge against New Zealand. She has levied, what Mr Moors describes as an unequal tariff on goods imported into Samoa. All goods coming from ports under the British flag are entere-d at 15 per cent, ad valorem, on cost price and freight. On goods, however, from all other parts, 22i per cent, is charged, i “This in effect,” says Mr Afoors, i “has injured the trade of the United States with tho islands, and is deeply resented, not only in the United States j but also in Japan. My own case illus- ■ trates the trade handicaps under this I anomalous position. I. made considerable purchases in Hong Kong and 1 j would have gone on to Japan and made l equally big purchases there but for tho fact that the latter goods would have had to enter Samoa under this discriminatory tariff.

O VER STAFF ED SERV ICE. “New Zealand,” remarks Mr Aloors, ‘has had nothing hut trouble ever since she took over the island. AVe have nothing against tho officials there; they are simply working under orders and are doing their best, although at the same time we are terribly overstaffed. The small revenue of the countries is being eaten up in salaries. The whole thing, indeed, is farcical. Plantations with no labourers to work them aro going hack to weeds. Tho labour of decades is being wasted. However good the intentions of the New Zealand Cabinet Ministers are, they are controlled to a large extent by the Labour party, which sets up all sorts of strange and impracticable theories. An ideal way in which to meet the position in Samoa would bo to import a whole population of free Javanese, giving land to those who wanted to work it and work to those who sought employmerit. The Dutch, with their great possessions in the East Indies, are not favourable to anything of the sort, but if it was considered desirable then urge Britain to offer some inducement New Zealand might te persuaded to to Java.”