SAMOA REPORT

Hokitika Guardian, 10 December 1927, Page 3

SAMOA REPORT

By Telegraph—Per Press Association.. WELLINGTON, Dec. 9. The report of the Samoan Commission was issued to-day. The Commission find that Prohibition in Samoa is statutory, and the Administration must respect and enforce it. The Commission state this legislation lias proved effective as far as could reasonably be expected in preventing liquor consumption by Samoans.

Under the question of the complaints concerning the action of the Administration in making advances, against native copra, and consigning such copra to the London market, through the agency of the New Zealand Reparation Estates Department, the Commission find that tlie traders were aware for some years past or complaints by the natives that they were not getting fair treatment, but the traders were content with the position. There also was no competition, the natives being helpless, having to accept what the traders chose to"pay, that traders paid only one price, irrespective of the quality ol the copra. The conditions under which the Samoans sold their copra to the traders were not just or reasonable.

The Commission find that the financial results of the Administration's scheme to induce the production of good copra by the natives, and to ensure their receiving a fair price, had been good. In regard to the complaints as to extravagance in the public expenditure, the finding of the Commission Is wholly in favour of the Administration.

The Commission find Messrs Gurr and Smith were guilty of inexcusable carelessness in their figures and statements on financial matters, but acquit them of wilful misstatement Air Nelson’s statements are characterised as “very reckless.” The Commission found nothing to justify the complaint that the Administration was overstaffed, overpaid or otherwise extravagant. The Commission find that tlie medical administration lias been most zealously conducted and most efficient. No possible cause for complaint is found in the auditory of the accounts of the Administration. The complaints as to the conduct of native affairs and of the alleged dictatorship of the Administrator, the Commission finds, were unfounded ■pile Commission finds that the banishment orders were regularly made, after proper investigation. The Commission makes severe strictures on the Hon Mr Nelson’s part .«> the Samoan trouble, and refer to ‘.he “grotesque exaggeration” of some rf tlie reports which reached Air Nelson in Wellington. Sydney and Auckland j from Samoan sources. I The Commission find that it would

not lie prudent or safe to wholly repeal the power to require a Samoan to remove to another place in the islands, and further, that no demand exists for the repeal. The Commission finds no act of malfeasance or misconduct on the part of the Administration, past or present. . , On three small, noii-eommital points alone is there any finding that is no entirely in favour of the Administration. 'Vs