The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1927. NEW ZEALAND’S MANDATE.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 December 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1927. NEW ZEALAND’S MANDATE.

| Tim report of the Samoan Commission j is going to fie debated very u idoly. Already it is being criticised in Sydney, | and it will be. the subject of much d.s- ---* ciission abroad, and even, no doubt, at I Geneva. The main complaint has been * all along that the order of reference j to the Commission was too circumscribed, and at the outset it will be I recalled that the recalcitrant Samoans , were not disposed to take up their | case Their counsel from New Zealand J advised against appearance and act--4 uallv did not appear. The CommisI sion sat. and an outline of the evidence 1 appeared in the daily press. The state- ■ meats generally were not impressive. 4 Imleed much of the evidence a p IK'a red trivial, and some of the witnesses un-

der examination had to reveal an unsavoury past. Much stress was put upon the banishments, which were (it k turns out) not banishments in the or- ► dinary way, but a tribal method of handling the native population. On k the whole, therefore, it was not a surprise to learn that the outcome of the report was a vindication G,' the New Zealand Government’s actions in mandated Samoa. It is a matter for regret that time was not afforded to debate the report before the House rose. The subject is in point of fact, an international one, and the world at large was entitled to know all that was to be said on the matter. As it is, the report will be sniped at from various quarters, and there will be piecemeal replies or explanations which will be in effect very feeble responses to the disparagements which supporters of the Samoans (who will include the enemies to mandates) will help upon the New Zealand control. In the special circumstances of the case, Parliament might have sat an extra day or two if necessary to allow the official public remarks on the report, with any local criticism, to go on record and so abroad. However, it remains to lie

seen—the general effect of the report on the outside world. That will be the supreme test. So far as the Dominion is concerned, the report established the fairness of the use of the mandated authority. It was proved to the satisfaction of the Commission that the local banishments of native chiefs were within the scope of the Samoan administration, and the action along those lines was justified. The power to deport Europeans was not included in the order of reference, yet this is naturally a moot -point internationally. The Commission offered some vindication of the practice founded on the evidence of the Europeans in Samoa, whose complaints were not supported by the evidence. Still there are strong obj.etions to the principle involved without the fullest trial in the matter, and the authorities should no-t over-reach the mark in any mistaken zeal. The Commission did not consider it was called upon to express an opinion upon the policy of prohibition as a whole, though it is believed generally that this policy had a good deal to do with the native unrest. State trading in c-opra was considered outside the order of reference also, though it appeared

manifest from the evidence that the natives benefit much more by trading with the State than with private firms. On the matters definitely within the order of reference there seems no crumb of comfort for the opponents of the Administration. Not only was the Administration supported in all respects, but the Mau, as the anti-Government organisation is called, was declared to have been set up to “secure practically self-government for the Samoans” and to induce Samoans to prevent the. Government from functioning. Moreover, certain Europeans who have been prominent in opposition to the Administration are judged guilty of “inexcus- | nblo in the handling of 7

figures. The verdict of justification will be closely canvassed for the reason that the mandated authority comes from an outside authority, and a much larger public opinion than that centred in New Zealand has yet to be satisfied.