UNKNOWN

Samoa Times and South Sea Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 22, 16 March 1889, Page 2

UNKNOWN

Wi art always WOHo| '" *»P W&» *t> UtUrt of aplmlM.tiLH |M w» wUh It to be dfcmwtfr aiißpiirjliil w dnnutoßdoiw Itayuge med, by-car nwwiwifiiiti. Our . -our loo»l or editoml «««■■». . TO TBI IDITOB 6* TB* fSWfc TOfSS. Sib,—A* we aro apparently oh the eve of a rewmthwtfotf'of the Government—if such it can becalled —that has administered the affaits of Samoa for the last few years, I think it might be well for any of the residents here "who may have given the matter their serious considerationto take advantage of your paper to Jw* before toe public their opinions on this, to ux, most important' subject Some people may argue that wiser heads; than any in Samoa are now at work devising means by which these jibttfrfc maybe governed in a way. to insure that justice to the individual and protection to property which all nave aright to expect; and that any opinions given ami suggestions made by any resident here however great his knowledge of the peculiarities of the people may be will have little or no effect on the result. I am inclined to think the reverse of i hij will be the case even at th'is late stage of the proceedings. I (irmly believe that the honest opinion of any resident with some experienue of the surroundings, temperately, though it may be roughly expressed will obtain the due consideration of those who have been charged with 'the responsible and difficult tank of organising the future government of Samoa. With "Tliewe preliminary"' remarks I will proceed to state as shortly and as clearly as I can, the ; "-r form of Government I consider best adapted for this country in its present w sMm of civiliaation, ;. :. . Vahink all thosetwhn know the mVtfcSgthey aTOfhJfAjple who are rerniflilbly oousej£<jttive of their old manners and customs, and for that l reason no radical changes should be made in the laws and the administration thereof, unier which they have been governed for generations. A gradual and progressive change is the only safe way to raise the Bamoans to that stage already reached by more highly cjvjlised nations. On these grounds I ihink it would jbe well to retain the same machinery •ofGovernmentjJpjft has been in force amongstMpebple for the last 15 or 20 yearf?Wo doubt tf»ir are many part* of the machine that will want altering and repairing hut it will be mucn better to do this than to introduoft.* bran new one that the people know nothing at all about Any new elements introducedintothe government should be done principally with a view to SJet the exigencies that hare arisen rough the necessity to make provision fee the gftVetjungof the coroDaraUyely large foreign population uow resident b these islands. k«*rf*he loanable them . ta<«Mßtsi.jam to. ordwito MmdAs: H *• a«4 n _ i i whan they hava imTmiißtHß' tX^i^. HrjtitlQSett. QHpM H rSi* .Am* • i ' Q9M jfLMßt^^MM^ttii-MMW his Kiount Hrty of thorn Bo sacrifice mst tppears Mt;»Ddthen m$ veakoeu

of wtytot the beet rightfa the} decided by the Setooen peo&a&sc Next to. the Xing the executive body should, I Uuoh, eov»t of two. Seinoens and three foreigners select-i ~ed %» the nation* having treatiesj Samoa The; would all be Tiaaw»% » what I can gather' out the a<H iljol foreigners they would be] I to carry on a Gov-. eramenttM| mnldgive satisfaction • to Samoejj gg white residents as 1 welL • Thisekeeutive council should , also be A with legislative j ! powers no that all measures passed, by the lower House would also have to pass.this thuy became law. In future coinplications selected should be in noway connected with the Government of their country. | Many o£ the past troubles in Samoa; have been caused through tha repre- , sentatives of the great powers inter-, ; feting in purely local politics;; ■ so to prevent a repititiou. of the past and any complication ; between the treaty powers in Samoa I think it is absolutely necessary that t&ey should not be in any way responsible for the acts of their I countrymen selected to fill the posiI tion of executive officers in the' Saraoan Government. They could not occupy this position if their J representative here.had any voice in , the appointment, the . selection j should therefore beleftentirely to the Samoans. The other part of the legislature j should consist of a tody chosen by the people to represent them. This j body might be called 'either the Tai- j mua or tho Faipule ; every mun over 18 years of age should have a vote, and every mart over 21 years of ape should—if" hoY a criminal— be eligible for a representative. This Home might be eompused iirif 40 or 50 members, and all measures wmd-l have to pass I it in their initial *tu£t>, before | they could become the law of the laud. The exeeutiva of., the Government should,' lie divided into four department namejyf tho department of State, the department of Justice, the department of Finance, an I the K department of Lands and Works. ■The first of these departments should Hbe under the Premier or Secretary of HState, who should, if possible, be a j ■Bemoan. This department would take j ■■barge of all foreign affairs and any j jßther matters that did not strictly j IHipe within tho other departments, j mm, documen's of importance i««ued i Kn this department should first be j Bhidnred and approved by the exe-. . Jiflye conm-il. The other three del Bments should be resppetively under V-'foroigncrs in tli" Government, j Her the Minister of Justice would She police and all judical nffiwrs, ! Bp the exception of the Chief Jus- j Bvbo should he be a lawyer of j Hi standing and entirely indepen-j B of any one executive officer. Ho I Hdd only l)o removable, by a majority j B-°' ,ne upper and lowor houses. j Bliiuister of Finance would take ■far of the financial affairs and Ents of the Government. In con■b with this departmout it might Bell to say something about Bpns necessary to carry on the Kitnent. and the best method. of B n K* Mn< l collecting the Mine. Kence has shown that a system Beet taxation is very objectionable Rp a highly civilised people. In Kis only in countries where the B have been more or less educated Bprinoiples of political economy Bj»*a system can be safely en--1 It is difficult to convince the Bpt mini that the few dollars he { Breturned to him in the shape; ■action for his person and his ■ty. He sees no immediate reRof his money and considers it a WL hardship to have to pay for ■■Hung from which he derives no Hmt benefit. On ths other hand tn P* ld by them without a |pk smalloees «f the pay ' fprtfent them from seeing s£jT

f»— —" I ' _ ■ H'l BB—g—;jwnldtoke.charge of Pubua Woriu such oa roads, bridges, *o.; and al) K matters in conneetioa with Land, suuh ' as surveys, Ac., would have to come .through his depar'Qrtnt. Apropos of lands, I think un International Land I Court should be foroiod immediately oh :■ tlieooiiHiructionof th sne* Government . to-examine into mid decide upon the | title of j.ll lands held by foreigners in I Bumoa. The decisions of this court " should be final. Al) former deeds ! bearing upon land that has passed | the court should be destroyed, and a {new title signed by the members of i the Land Court and countersigned { by the Ring should be the only ; legal title to said lands for the i future. There should also be a public registration office in connection with the Lands department, where all ! documents dealing with lands should jbe registered before they could be I legally recognised. At present • there | are no certain means by which a man wanting to bay land eon find out whether it has been previously dealt with or not. This has the effect of lowering the value of landed property, | The respective consulates have been j used as offices of record, but that is I only for the benefit of the mau who ! records. No one caa see these documents but the recorder or one with | his authority. It follows therefore : that these records are perfectly useless | as a protection to tho general public ' Let there be a registration office where ull deeds must be registered, and where anyone by paying the fees can inspect the records, nnd land swindles, and laud disputes would tie a thiug of the past. - The foregoing is a skeleton outline of what in my opinion would be a | Government that would be permanent, and calculated to give satisfaction to ■ tho majority of the people. No doubt I there would be a good deal of frictiou j at first, and much forbearance, coupled wtth great firmness, would be uocest sary qualities in those who had the j administration of affairs. I had in- | tended to say something about the | municipality of Apia, but my letter is j already too long, so I will reserve that for a future issue. I hope some of your readers will take this important matter of a future Government up, and come forward and state their views on the subtject. N* harm ami, and much good may come from a temperate and sincere expression of opinion on a subject of such vital importance to the future of Samoa. T. Mabkx. TO TOE EIUTOIt OF TUB SAMOA TIMES. Sin, —I have been patiently waiting since Brautleia the Premier, Com-mander-in-chief of tho forces, and treasurer, etc, to the late Tainuseso German Government, to find out where ] the old Government books have been ; sent ? What has become' of the taxes collected lust year? Why has there j not been a balance sheet published ? | Who is the person to look to for in--1 formation. I always thought it was i tkVi duty of the pics to make enqui- { rit-s when such becomes necessaryi what becomes of tho public money.— j I am, Ac. SeilKW-jACK. [Our correspondent must bear in I mind that' we have been only »'x mouths in Samoa. We have heard that taxes to the amount of the about $50,000 !>ave been paid to the late | Tamasese Government some time last j year, but wo know nothing more of | the matter. We suggest that" Borewj Jack " should make enquiries of the German Consul or the German firm. No doubt one of those parties could explain what has been done with the money.—Ed. S. T.] REPORTINttBY TKUSTiWONEBSEft TO THE EDITOR OF TU* SAMOA TIMES. Silt,—ln the Sydney Daily Telegraph dated February 15th, headed, "Arrival of H. M. S. Calliope," "From Our Own Correspondent." " Apia, February 4th," he states in that article " that* thousand acres of cotton just ready for picking, and; I no labor to do the work, the loseea • of the D. H. and P. G. can be reexHTy imagined, etc.," Now, if the firm had all the labor they wanted it would puzzle theD. H. and P. G. or any other firm to get cotton in Samoa during the month of February. Cotton is planted in Samoa abonfc December; the cotton 1* ripe tor , picking about June, and huts away* till December \ then they begin to trim and keep clean for picking in • June, again. , liwidea of cotton during the hot " seaaon, any from January to March. . -.(Mi I, Jon cms! for troth.--I am, **•,, ' . ,■ . FIU PLOr.,'4 r^HMUtSsksSSBSBBasiSMMBCBSSSSBB-SSBBBSBSM;

- The Thills* -fciy. J Bl< ItM.) • .'lt msv no*.«eem|waannnitory of ' peaceful times when wereedtheatattImg intfUigftww >a jMMnUjr't cable ! message*, to the effectthat England • ia about to increase her mt; twentyuwo new ironclads and fifty : cruisers, at ft eoat for naval defence of a hundred mOliona sterling. The mag- 1 nitude of thia operation may begauged from the fact that last year England bad only twenty-six first-class armourclads, and tbenaval eetjmat-e for the year umounted to aome twelve ftod a h«lf millions. The proposed oanamous increase, which annua like donbling the British-Navy, is to be effected by a sp*ciai loan, and may be ejtpeetrd to not leaden the appropriations from revenue made from year to year for the j nuinUinenoft or the ieet and the building of new voeaehi. Of oourae England haa beaidea a large number of second- '. chua armour-elada, which are those . having lew than eight-inch armour, ; and of the third-class of warships y, which are of an inferior type ; hut ' as comparative ineffectiveness of de-. ; fence is nowadays virtually equivalent t to no defence at all, we may assume , that, none but the flwt-claaaof nrmonrclads ia contemplated in the Sew de- j partnre. If this is so, then not only]! will the now ships nearly equal the; \ number of fighting ships of their class j already owned by Great Britain but will themselves exactly number the j whole of the first class armoured ships ' of France, and more than double the I number of the similar class possessed hy Italy. An estimate of the naval strength of England with such an increase may be formed when we know that if Euglaud had these contemplated vessels already in possession, she would have of first-class iine-of-battle ships of the moat modern construction a navy nearly equal to that of Franc, Italy, Germany, and Russia combined; while computing all those warships of a less j effective class, the craisera armoured or unurWured.thecHpaoifcie*for offensive j mid defensive purposes possessed in her unequalled mercantile marine of flying j cruUera, we am warranted in believing • that, in the subsidiary assistance available to her bhr leviathans, England'a j strength would similarly compare to the combined strength at sen of, ail. the ctner great |M>wera of Europe. It does not seem at first as if this startling movement in advance contomplatod by the British GovKr/fment was very signifioant of the nearness of the timewhen the lion will lie down with the 'lamb. But England'a warlike armaments are not fur utfenco and every day is giving strength to that moral sense of the Empire, which is .ready to rise in revolt against aggression on the rights of other nation*, or even intervention • in quarrelswith which wo have no concern . England's past history shows as durk misdeeds and as many of thorn as > thut of any other nation; but the Jove of justice, of law and order, which is more and more dominating Anglo-Saxon social life, is giving us the guarantee that the time is not far distant when British cannon will never speak hut in the cause of peace, and justice and right. In tbeae circumstances, circumstances which no one can honestly gainsay, the moat ardent advocate of universal peace among the nations, and of the submission of international differences to peaceful arbitration, need not view with any suspicion or distrust this enormous increase of british naval armaments. " Defence, not defiance," the motto of her cititen soldiery must now- be written on England'a national bannora; and this turning of her attention to her naval equipment while maintaining no standing army of any signifioaaoo, might even be taken aa shoWinjg'tbat henceforth she will turn heratafaWre from the miserable oonv plicaooM of European politics, and contph«r efforts to the building np of h# Own vast empire and the protection of her own world-vide commerce. That thia ia the direction in whioh the general mind-of the British people is tending,*, we ean'eee from unmietakeable evidence; and sooner or later the national polioy, and the polioy of her ruler* and statesmen, are bound to • follow ttte bent of the powlar mind. The inareaae of Great Britain's naval •trtngth is not indicative of belligerent tendeneisa. It is true it is stimulated by the menacing eepaet of European oompUaattoas; but ait esteaaka off EnglandSaaval forces anehaa this is UMaffesttsl Of AMP AfIAaMNI AAA uftT ttlaU 2|a_H '

on. which the sea never seta, and this startling ioereeaa of naval sUaagtftk afaoald fee s groans far eatiafaation ; far the iaviaeibk fores el England, banked op try the moral saase that ia now dominating the whole aoeisl economy pf the Anglo-Saxon race, wilt be the beat guarantee of universal peace.