SAMOA INQUIRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 149, 14 September 1927, Page 1

SAMOA INQUIRY

PRIME MINISTER’S PROMISE QUESTIONS IN HOUSE (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON. Tuesday. The Prime Minister has promised to inform the House on Thursday the attitude of the Government toward placing the evidence of the Joint Committee of both Houes on Samoa before the commission now investigating. It is evident that the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. H. E. Holland, will insist that if the evidence is to be given to the commission, it should come down in the constitutional way and be placed before the members of the House first. It was Mr., Holland who raised the point in the House to-day when he asked what had been done with the evidence. He also asked if the order issued on behalf of the Government forbidding the native Samoans to contribute to the Mau fund, which was for the purpose of defraying expenses in connection with their own affairs, would be recalled. The Prime Minister’s reply was that the order had been issued by the Administrator, and he could not promise to get the information asked by Mr. Holland. He gave an undertaking to mention the subject when the Samoa question was again raised in the House. A question asked by Mr. T. M. Wilford in respect to the “Morning Post’s” conception of the Samoan unrest, which had suggested unduly harsh rule was described by Mr. Coates as an inaccurate representation of the position. In fact the New Zealand High Commissioner at Home had dealt trenchantly with this particular article.