SAMOA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3786, 1 May 1928, Page 2

SAMOA.

MR. LINKLATER’S IMPRESSIONS. In the course of his address at the Levin Lunch Club’s gathering on Friday, on the subject of his visit to the Pacific Islands a year ago, Mr. J. Linklater, M.P., said that during the whole of his stayin Samoa, no sign of any trouble existed. His party travelled unattended through many parts of • Samoa night and day and were welcomed cheerfully everywhere they went. He had said, when he returned from Samoa, that the' chief cause of the trouble there had been through the Administrator endeavouring to get a better price for copra for the natives. All through the Pacific where copra was grown, the natives had been getting , a better price although the quality of Samoan copra was higher. Mr. Nelson and other traders had establishments set up all over Samoa, and they resented the Administrator’s action. The other matter was the question of prohibition. The Administrator had been vety strict in this connection, and rightly so. The speaker could not understand the attitude of Mr. H. E. Holland in this matter. The Leader of the Opposition was usually on the side of the small battalions; but how he could Reasonably justify' his upholding of those who carried to the extreme vested interests in Samoa Mr. Linklater could not imagine. What he was very sure about, however, was the fact that if the Opposition had helped as much as it had obstructed the Government in Samoa, the trouble would never have reached the proportion it had, and would have been settled long ago.