The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1929 BAD SERVICE IN SAMOA

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 594, 21 February 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1929 BAD SERVICE IN SAMOA

IS a rule dog does not eat dog, but even watchdogs may bite one another. The old adage springs up at the appearance of the report by a New Zealand Civil Service Commission on the work of" civil servants in Western Samoa. The Commission’s recent investigations revealed a sorry condition of departmental affairs in the troubled territory. In many ways, nearly all of them provocative of irritation, things have been worse there than some complainants imagined in their worst temper.

Since the harassed administration in the mandated zone is so sensitive to criticism, it were prudent to rely entirely on official examination and comment. With almost brutal frankness, the New Zealand Commission of Civil Service officers, presumably experts, declares that the Samoan service is by no means creditable to the Dominion. It actually is so discreditable that drastic action on far-reaching reforms is advocated as an urgent necessity. The new United Government, which got this Samoan legacy from its predecessor, is convinced that remedial action will have to be taken at once. “We are satisfied that the state of affairs in Samoa,” says Sir Joseph Ward, “is such that we have to protect the interests of New Zealand.” Precisely! But the Prime Minister might well have gone a little farther in intention and included the interests of discontented Samoans in the prospective protection.

Though the commissioners’ report does not say anything about it, there is no doubt at all that some of the mischievous discontent among the natives of Western Samoa could he attributed fairly to the muddled condition -of the Samoan service which “is by no means creditable to New Zealand.” The mandate was designed at Versailles to protect and uplift a backward native community, hut many Samoans are neither backward nor simple enough to fail in observing and understanding clearly the admitted waste of money, the widespread crudity and slackness of departmental service and, worst of all, the growing prospect of taxation. It would he unpardpnably unfair to the past Administrator and to his able successor to overlook the splendid work that has been accomplished for the best welfare of the Samoan natives, but many people reasonably might wonder what the Mandates Commission at Geneva would have said if this latest report had accompanied the pleasanter story of fine achievement.

The severe indictment of the Civil Service in the island contains many counts, and on each count the evidence sustains the charge respecting slack and muddled departmental administration. Quite clearly, too clearly indeed, it has been demonstrated that several officers did not know their jobs too well and were even more bewildered than some of the political administrators, that others had a very:easy time and did not earn their money, while sundry debtors and at least one senior official did not pay for hoard at the popular Casino and Cottage, and also that the service generally was overstaffed and extravagant. Quite a good job was made with the money spent on Apia Park for the provision of horse-racing, golf and .tennis, “but the benefit to the natives was negligible.” And so on in a long series of aggravating details of inefficiency and tropical slackness. Due allowance, of course, must he made for the fact that the mandate was a big experiment for immature officials, and the influence of climate must not he overlooked. Indeed, it is probable that the real cause for wonder lies more in the measure of f he initial success of administration than in the deplorable extent of departmental failure. Conclusive proof has at last been afforded that a thorough sweeping-out of ineptitude is necessary as an urgent reform. New Zealand has paid dearly for preliminary crudity of service. If the natives are to be brought out of their mood of sulking and their practice of passive resistance, and taught to pay their way through taxation, they are entitled to receive adequate service for loyalty and for their money. The Government should not iiesitate to weed out the enervated incompetents. Meanwhile, the latest commission has Scrubbed off some of the previous whitewash on the glowing picture of Samoan administration.