IN SAMOA

Hokitika Guardian, 2 November 1931, Page 2

IN SAMOA

PEACE AND HARMONY

ADM,!NISTR ATORfS REPORT TO GOVERNMENT.

AVELLINOTON, October 29. Native unrest has steadily diminish

od, states the annual report on the Samoan Administration, and as it died away several of the. well-known

agitators left the country and the discordant elements became less con--1 pinions. It is .suggested that tae centenary celebrations of the London Missionary Society, by causing a cessation of mutual animosities among the Bamoans, helped vu dissipate the yum mints of the agitation, and the .Samoans, tired of strife, were content to abandon the bitterness of the past three years. “The position now is generally satisfactory,’’ the leport says. '‘lncreasing peace and harmony prevail. The active phase of the Alan appears tn have ended. There, are few Samoans taking any in tore* l in it. There is still a passive phase in which o«onora *'on with the Admis&ration is not complete, lint in almost every district the Samoans now are working together, uniting in all former normal relations among themselves and with Cm Administration 'officials* in local affairs. The movement itself has changed in character with the less of strength, and is engaged, so far a-s it exists at all, ‘ in the collection of money for the purposes of propaganda in Auckland. AA’hile the Mau has ceased for a time to he of practical importance, it may be expected to revive a little for the benefit of tourists ns each dry season recurs, and its complete end may be delayed if the financial returns from visitors are sufficient.” CHIEFS’ AUTHORITY DECLINING. The report refers to the disappearance of the former system of paternal goverment bv native chiefs, and suggests that the effect of the Abut has been to hasten the decay of the social .structure bv undermining: the influence of tile chiefs through divisions in the family and through the setting up of a vague outside authority as an excuse for disobedience to the Alatai. The process was probably inevitable, and in the advance of every similar community towards civilisation there occurs a period when the rule of the chiefs begins to decline and be replaced by outside forces.

SamoatL revenue for “the year was £130.335 and expenditure £140,288, including the expense of extra police not paid bv the Administration in previous years. The New Zealand Government subsidy of £21.000. compared with the previous year’s pavraent of £39.000. enabled the Administration to show a surplus.