The Sun MONDAY, MARCH 19, 1928. MR COATES ON SAMOA

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 307, 19 March 1928, Page 8

The Sun MONDAY, MARCH 19, 1928. MR COATES ON SAMOA

THE PRIME MINISTER lias released some good news about * Samoa. In a report from Wellington, following on a Cabinet meeting which gave preliminary consideration to secret official despatches from Apia, Mr. Coates has declared quite definitely that there is no reason for anticipating a .serious breach of the peace in the mandated territory, and that lives and property there are to-day not in jeopardy. This is quite the best message the public of New Zealand lias had for a long time concerning- the strained affairs in Samoa. Of course, the Prime Minister’s reassuring statement does not go as far as to say that all’s well in Samoa and that everything is as right as right can be. But it does go far enough to justify the Government feeling ashamed at the tactics of some of its political friends, and also to serve as a stinging rebuke to those rabid “loyalists” on the island who, as ambushed agitators with sufficient influence to find a gap in an otherwise close censorship barricade, last week sent from Apia by radio an inflammatory statement about serious tension in Samoa, to say little or nothing at all about their despicable piece of raw political propaganda. It is the expressed wish of the Prime Minister that the people of New Zealand should understand that “the alarmist reports recently circulated from unofficial sources in Samoa are greatly exaggerated.” The public will be glad to understand that there is no cause for alarm, but it also would like to know why the administrative authorities at Apia, knowing that the provocative communication in code was an alarmist, grossly exaggerated statement from an unofficial source, allowed the fabricated story to pass the official censor? It was first published by a Reform journal here, and given a prefatory statement explaining, as further proof of the accuracy and gravity of the remarkable report, that, being a coded me. age subject to censorship, it might be taken as representing correctly the position of affairs in Samoa. In this column the mysterious communication was condemned as despicable and dangerous propaganda. And now the Prime Minister states plainly that the message was a gross exaggeration. It is good to learn that, the foul assertion in the disgraceful message about insubordinate natives openly insulting white women in Apia w.as a falsehood. The Government should make a salutary example of the propagandist who overwhelmed the censorship and obtained the right to broadcast a provocative story. The Government lias not yet decided what action it may be necessary to take for the purpose of making a satisfactory end to an unsatisfactory business. It may be inferred from the Prime Minister’s statement that the worst of the protracted trouble has passed. The large assembly of Man adherents at Apia has been dispersed, most of them having returned to their homes. There is, of course, still a mutter of discontent and some disobedience of the law. It is to be hoped that the Administration will be able quickly to compose dissension and straighten but all the crooked difficulties. Since the task of the Administrator who is to succeed General Sir George Richardson will be an extremely delicate one, the Government may be relied upon to give very serious thought to the prospective appointment. It has been suggested by a meeting of some citizens of Auckland that the position should be offered to the Tlon. Sir Apirana Ngata. Beyond a doubt the Parliamentary representative of the Eastern Maoris in this island has outstanding ability, taet and patience for the arduous post, but it is open to honest doubt whether the appointment of a New Zealand native as the chief Administrator of a Polynesian race would be acceptable to the Samoans. It is not likely that the Government will make the experiment of appointing a cultured Maori to be the great chief in Western Samoa. In any ease, a special effort should be made fo secure the services of a wise administrator who is neither a soldier nor a politician.

THE HIGH COST OF SCHOOLS

THE cost of education has mounted to such a. staggeringtotal that there should be a general desire to agree with the Minister of Education, who hesitates in the policy of erecting large and costly schools of permanent material. Mr. Wright lias wisely listened to the opinion of experts in education who are -tudying the present trend of school accommodation in other countries and who consider that huge structures of brick or stone must give place to less enduring materials, which can be erected, altered or replaced at very much less cost. Such is the demand for school accommodation that the State will soon be hard put to it to find cover, of even the least expensive kind procurable, for the children. Unless this country becomes superabundantly wealthy, to go on building large and costly brick structures will become a matter of sheer financial impossibility. The school population is growing at an enormous rate, and this is particularly noticeable in Auckland, where schools erected only yesterday, it seems, are already overcrowded, and those that have been enlarged are still insufficient to cope with the local demand. What is to be the ideal school of the future ? Recent opinions are to the effect that the present system of building is all wrong, and that we do not need the structures mentioned by Mr. Wright —brick edifices that will last for a hundred years. Light buildings, each class in a separate shelter, with sun And air having access on four sides, and with windows or shutters that can afford shelter against boisterous weather, seem to be suggested, and these provisions should be eminently suitable for a climate such as that of Auckland. This, however, is a question that has to he considered by the architects of the Education Department and the Education Boards, and in view of the enormous building expenditure connected with education, the sooner it is considered and a fut»re policy outlined, the better it will be, both for the progress of the pupil and the pocket of the taxpayer.