The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1930. WESTERN SAMOA.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1930, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1930. WESTERN SAMOA.

The debate ou Samoa in the House or Representatives last week took a not unfamiliar lino says the Otago Times. That -is to say the leader of the Labour Party made it an opportunity of expressing his well-known views Iconclirning the pidmin'isicratioti

of the mandated territory, and of putting everybody in tire wrong but these who think like him, and, of course, the Samoans themselves who saw lit to resist the exercise of a necessary authority. That Mr Holland is gifted with a very special understanding of the. mentality of the Samoans—that is to say the members of the 'Man—it is unnecessary to believe, though as times goes on he may really dome to believe it himself. Hi** review of the affair at Apia in December last should make quite agreeable reading for The Samoans Ayho still haye an inclination tq bo disaffected, The disturbance, ho submitted, had been provoked by the police and not by the Samoans. Thus apparently is as far as the Leader oi the Labour Party can get by way oi a contribution towards harmony in the relations between the people and the Administration in Samoa. It would ’be interesting to know lor whoso benefit he really supposes such pronouncements to be, It cannot be for the benefit of the Samoans. The Minister of Defence observed in reference to such utterance that ho did not think the speakers understood what the effect of their remarks would be when they reached Samoa. Yet if Mr Holland is' still deficient in understanding, on such a point his obtusenciss must be wilful. In endeavouring in tlie beginning to ma.be political capital .out of the Mail agitation at the e.xpense t of course, ot the Reform Party lif was doing more, it Ls charitable to suppose, than he hacl any cognisance of in encouraging the creation of a difficult situation in Samoa through leading members of the disaffected organisation to an erroneous supposition as to the importance attached by the people ol New Zealand to their doings, and as to the New Zealand attitude. in respect of the Government’s policy and the methods of the Administration. But presumably the country is to suppose that a high sense of duty simply will not permit Mr Holland to keep quiet. Mr Cobbe’n reply was quite a reasonable one, and when he spoke of the Samoans as a happy and contented people, and said that all they needed at the present time was to be let alone—a statement open to more than one reading perhaps he was surely expressing views compatible with true benevolence in a man-’(l:it',-liolding Government. It is desirable, the Minister has observed, that Samoa should have a civil admi: rlralor, ami if by that is meant a efviiian administrator the intention that seems to be indicated is no doubt a sound one. Mr B'ownie Stewart’s contribution to the debate on the House was effective as a re.piy to Mr Holland. His .suggestion that there should be a university Chair of Pacific Affairs in the Dominion for the preparation of New Zealanders to deal with problems such as are mit with in Samoa and the 'lslands generally is worthy of serious consideration. Sir Apirana Ngata’s utterance on the subject of the debate was of particular interest as a general dispassionate statement of the problem in Samoa, which lie succinctly identifies as the of attuning Western culture to the mentality of 'the

Polynesian. That, observes ihe Minister for Native Affairs, ’‘is the job of the pakelia.’’ Ho allows that no man could have gone to Samoa under more difficult circumstances than the present Administrator, and emphasises Kin point that law and order must be maintained in the territory. Sir Apirana. Ngata is critical of what has been attempted in Samoa, but it is criticism of a kind that should be more 'helpful than otherwise. The restoration of peace and* harmony in Western Samoa has been proceeding, there seems no reason to doubt satisfactorily. It is worthy of mention that Miss Jean Begg, general secretary of the Y.W.C.A., who recently revisited Samoa after an interval ol some years, has expressed herself as ,si,ruck .-by the .signs of remarkable progress now evident in the territory. The main tiling in the view of this observer is to keep Samoa, out of New Zealand politics.