SAMOAN UNREST

Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1929, Page 5

SAMOAN UNREST

METHODIST MISSIONARY’S COMMENTS. DUNEDIN, October 13. “ New Zealand must govern Samoa, but we are certainly not satisfied with the present state of affairs there. If Samoa cannot be governed without the use of force after ten years’ experience, then that amounts to a confession of failure,” stated the Rev. J. N. Goldie to a reporter this morning. Mr Goldie, who has been in charge of the Methodist Mission in the Solomon Island for twenty-seven years, and who has had over thirty years experience with native races in the Pacific, and at the present time is a member of the Council of Advice of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific in the Solomons, is a man eminently qualified to comment on the Samoan situation, and his remarks hold particular interest. “ The Government of- all the Pacific islands constitutes a very difficult task,” be said. “Our own Dominion Government has had difficulty in straightening out 'the affairs in Samoa, chiefly through a lack of knowledge of native life and character. After my experience, I am convinced that the solution of the problem lies in the course the Administration seems reluctant to adopt: that is, calling into its Councils not only Europeans of long experience with the natives, but the more intelligent native chiefs themselves, and finding out what the natives really desire. The Government will claim that it lias adopted this course, but in my opinion it has only called in those whose views were known to coincide with those of the Administration.

“I had a long interview with Tnmasese in Mt. Eden Gaol,” continued Mr Goldie, “ and while 1 found him resentful of his unjust deportation from Samoa and imprisonment in New Zealand, his interpretation of the phrase, 1 Samoa for the Samoans,’ meant, as far as 1 could ascertain, nothing that we could not grant without any loss of prestige. If the views of the Samoans were ascertained, and were found to be absolutely impossible, then the sincere friends of the Government would be satisfied that the present course of repression and force was justifiable. For the credit of New Zealand, which has handled the native affairs of this Dominion in such a way as to win the admiration of the whole world, it should not he difficult to find a wav out of the present impossible position.”