SAMOAN NATIVES

Hokitika Guardian, 10 July 1931, Page 2

SAMOAN NATIVES

PEACEFUL SPIRIT,

A STUDENT’S IMRESSIONS

AUCKLAND, July 7

After having spent a month in Samoa, his main object being the study of native problems, Mr Byron Brown, of Wellington, returned by the Tofua. “You can safely say that as far as the Mau is concerned there is no trouble in the Samoan Islands to-day,” said Mr Brown. “The. seething discontent about which so much lias been heard is not in evidence. 1 spent a month fraternising with the natives and, being able to speak Maori, I was able-to get more into their- confidences than perhaps the average white visitor could do under ordinary circumstances. On one occasion there was a] great gathering of the Mau in one of the principal villages to welcome Mr E. B. Williams, a Government official from the Federated Malay States. One of the Mau chiefs gave him a siva, or dance/ and. accompanying Mr Williams and Miss Hart, the Administrator’s daughter, the Chief Justice, Mr J, H. Luxford, Bishop Kempthorne and his wife, and myself. Mr Williams was placed in the seat of honour with the Adminstrator’s daughter on his right. The usual feast and kava

drinking were carried out with ceremonial custom. The fact of-Mr Hart’s daughter beirg present on such an auspicious occasion showed conclusively that the relationships between the Man and the administration had become wonderfully pacific, “Next day the chief, who was responsible for organising the peaceful gesture, called on me, and, in perfect idiomatic English said: ‘We have finished with the man who was responsible for causing the agitations

among the Samoans in the past.’ ” | Mr. Brown said that at present not the slightest trouble was apparent. The natives were friendly to the adinistration, and they even went so far |as to suggest that if certain white men, now living, in the,-slands, could be prevailed upon to stop agitating, there would be no further trouble in Samoa.

I The new Administrator had just finished a trip round Savaij, the largest island of the Samoan. group, said Mr Brown, and Mr Hart had come back very pleased with his reception. I “As a matter of fact all the natives with whom I conversed spoke very

highly of. him,” he said, ‘‘and judging by the peaceful spirit which is in evidence throughout Samoa, at the.' present time, the new Administrator's job should be one which will be carried out in tranquility