SAMOAN TROUBLES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 73, 17 November 1931, Page 6

SAMOAN TROUBLES

NEW ZEALAND's part MEN WITH EXPERIENCE OF NATIVE RACES NEEDED ADDRESS BY SIR M. HEDSTROM The opinion that the recent troubles in regard to New Zealand's admin;stration of Samoa had been brought about to some extent by the failure of the Dominion to appoint Administrators with experienee in dealing with native races was expressed by Sir John Maynard Hedstrom, senior elective member of the Legislative Council of Fiji, in an address to the Rotorua Rotary Club yesterday. Sir Maynard and Lady Hedstrom are at present visiting Rotorua. In the course of his address in which he dealt on general lines with the political, commercial and general' situation in Fiji, Sir Maynard referred to the recent troubles in Samoa and expressed the opinion that fchese could to some extent have been avoided had the situation been handied by administrators under the British Colonial Office — men professionally trained in the work of governing and controlling native races. New Zealand's administrators, with the best of intentions in the world, he stated, were still lacking in the specialised training which o'fficials of the Colonial office could have brought to the problems of Samoa. "There is not the slightest doubt that New Zealand had the best interests of Samoa at heart," stated Sir Maynard, "but she has suffered from the fact that she has been sending amateurs to carry out work which should be done by professionals. Excellent men have been sent, but they had not experienee in handling native races. They were men who had the best interests of the colony at heart but I venture to express the cpinion that if trained members of the Colonial Office staff had' been sent, there would have been no irouble. Men trained in the work \Vould not have fallen into the. pit*alls of past administrators." Political Constitution Sir Maynard prefaced his remarks 'ry a brief survey.of the political con;titution of the Fiji Islands. The islands were a Crown colony governed •ntirely by the Secre.tary of State for the Crown Colonies from his office in Downing Street. The Governor of the islands was appointed by the Secretary but might actually come from any part of the world. The. officials who administered the various departments coming under this office were men with wide experienee and very thorough training in the work of gov?.rning native races. The islands were divided into three toups, the Fijian Islands, the Ton•an group, and the Samoan group. The natives of all three had many •oints in common with New Zealand's laor's, although this was' most notice'.ble in the case of the Tongans. Since " j is arrival in Rotorua, Sir Maynard atated, he had compared the Tongan cumerals with those of the Maoris -nd had found the only differing •iumeral was one. Assisting the Governor in Fiji, was 3n elective Legislative Council. This •ody acted purely in an advisory cap'city but as it was constituted of the icst influential members of the Euroean and native population, actually 'ts dehberations carried a great deal f we.ight. Indian Problem The speaker briefly referred to the indian problem in the islands. There , ras in the Fijis, an East Indian poplation of 75,000. These Indians had riginally been imported in order to work the sugar plantations and supply labour for other island industries but •Ithough there had been no admission for some years now, their numbers had very greatly increased. The original stock carne from the poorer disa'icts of India where the people had lived in many cases in abject poverty and w'th scarcely erfough food. In '.he more spacious environment of the islands, however, a land to the.m almost literally flourishing with milk and honey, they had increased very npidly and now formed a very large ;.ropoition of the population. It was loticeable that the generation which iad been born and reared in the islands was much sturdier in type than he or'ginal importations. Agitations had arisen among the Indians regarding representation on ;he Legislative Council and they had nade strong representations for the •ntroduction of a common electoral .'oll in which each voter would have an equal voting strength. It was felt, however, that with 75,000 Indians in the colony and a European Population of 5000, if the common •oll was introduced, the Indian secfon would posses an overwhelming alective power. Communications had aroceeded between the Colonial Office and the India Office on -the subject and there had been a strong feeling hat the interests of the. European pection must be safeguarded. This •ame matter had been a burning ques:ion in Kenya and in that colony had iven been talk of recourse to armed ebellion to protect the rights of the Europeans. Following representaions from Fiji, however, the Colonial rffico had resisted any efforts to in.roduce the common roll, and the ommunal roll which gave different /otmg' pov/er to the various sections vi the community had been permitted to remain. A Lean Time Commercially, the. Fijis were hav'ng a very lean time at present. Sugar .vas now down to £7 10s a ton, a rrice which was considerably below ;he cost of production and copra had ■eached the lowest price level ever •ecorded in the history of the trade. Manana growing was also more or ess of a diminishing quantity at -resent, and the only industry which vpreared to be all flourishing was . >ine:apr!e growing. In this connection, there were prosects of the Hawiian Pineapple Comany commenc'ng operations in the 7'jis where it had an option over a Yrge r.roa of land. The prospeets Tom the pineapple cr.nning industry aould be guaged fiom the fact. that ".ct year this company had sold 11,"00 000 cases 'of canned fruit at an apprordmate pjr'ce of £1 a case, while 'ha commg season's output was estiatod at 14,000,000 cases. In the event of a system of interEmpire preference developing, however, a British company might be

formed by the Hawiian organisation, with a certain proportion of British capital. In any case., the company had two years before it must make a decision as to whether it would commence operations in the Fijis, but if it did so, it would change the whole complexion of affairs in the islands. Sir Maynard expressed the cordial feeling which had always existed towards New Zealand in Fiji. In 1922 when the Indian rioting was giving cause for anxiety, New Zealand had come to the help of the islands, and again when a serious epidemic had ravaged the group, New Zealand doctors and nurses had assisted. In addition to this New Zealand took a great proportion of the banana supply of the Fijis as well as a large quantity of its green fruit. Preference for New Zealand Recognising that the Dominion was buying Fijian- products, it had been felt that something should be done to reciprocate and negotiations had been commenced with a view to extending a measure of preference to New Zealand goods. These had lagged for some time but finally a three column tariff had been drafted whicli classified goods entering the islands under the headings of foreign, British, and listed countries. This last section included Great Britain, Canada, Hong Kong and New Zealand, which all admitted Fijian products fre.e of duty. Under this tariff, 30 or 40 different classes of New Zealand goods were given 15 per cent. preference. Unfortunately the benefit of this tariff had been lost to some extent owing to the prevailing ex- * change rates which reacted against New Zealand.