HANDLING THE SAMOAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 762, 7 September 1929, Page 6

HANDLING THE SAMOAN

Polynesian and Pakeha

SIR APIRANA NGATA’S APPEAL Working of the Native Mind (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter) PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Friday. SAMOA and its difficulties gave the Minister of Native Affairs, Sir Apirana Ngata, ah opportunity today to make the best speech of the session, and one which was greeted at the close with spontaneous applause from members. In an eloquent fashion he painted pictures of the difficulties confronting the Dominion in the administration of the mandated territory, and said that the solution was a legal one which could be arrived at by a round-table conference. He was speaking throughout from the point of view of the Polynesian.

Sir Apirana paid glowing tribute to the qualities of the British as administrators, and said that had the Samoan Administration been British from the start, the present trouble would not have arisen. He stressed the value of the teaching of English as a method of bringing the native races to a pitch of self-government.

Referring to the suggestion from Mr. E. J. Howard (Christchurch South), in the amendment moved earlier in the debate, that he (Sir Apirana) should be sent to Samoa to report on affairs, Sir Apirana said that it would be unwise for a Polynesian to be sent there. The Maoris differed from Samoans, and were only distantly related, so that it would be hard to get inside the Samoan mind. It was a problem, said Sir Apirana, for the Pakeha to govern Samoa. The first principle was to teach the natives English, and plenty of it. An education conference had been held in 1927, under the chairmanship of Sir Maui Pomare. Experts laid it down that in the lower classes in Samoa no English should be taught. It was optional in some of the higher classes, and was compulsory in the Government schools

from the fourth standard and upward. The Polynesian could not be kept from the world except where he was inaccessible to the white man. The white man had been the trouble in Samoa, and difficulties had been caused by the origin of the mandate from the League of Nations. After the World War, in an international

environment, the mandate had acquired a tone above the ordinary, and New Zealand had to key up its administration to keep up to that standard. If New Zealand had bought Samoa there would have been no trouble, for we would have suited our administration psychologically to that fact. If we accepted it as fundamental that outside factors must affect Samoa, we must expect in the future, in the next generation, a clash between the native Samoan and other nations of the world. VALUE OF ENGLISH “The experience of the Maori is that the best weapon to enable him to stand up to what he may have to meet in the world is plenty of English, and of the best,” continued Sir Apirana. “Never mind about geography. I think experts made a mistake in policy not to teach the young Samoan English in the most impressionable stage of his life. Doubtless the point of view of the experts was that Samoa was to be a place for Samoans, and. therefore, children should be educated in Samoan language. “If we were to view the progress of Samoa we must visualise its penetration by other races. The idea of those who sat round that conference table seemed to be that they were afraid that everyone would be aiming at becoming a civil servant. Undoubtedly there was a tendency among educated Maoris to enter the professions and civil service. There they were doing excellent work, and there was room for. them. “The whole trouble, however, with the Pakeha is that after advising the native to emulate the white man he walks away a distance and starts throwing bricks at him. We have always thought it funny. “As to the suggestion of Mr. Coates’s, that the young men should receive special training so as to get a better appreciation, from the political standpoint, of the difficulties of governing Samoa, Sir Apirana could not quite follow him. If it was in the mind of Mr. Coates that the only future for Samoa was that of a Crown Colony like Fiji, the suggestion was feasible. That brought up the question of what was to be the future policy of the government of Samoa. Was it to have representative government, or was it to be administrated by a department of New Zealand?” QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY Speaking as a Polynesian, Sir Apirana said that the ideal would be to remove the bulk of those who governed Samoa now if it were possible. He meant a good deal by “if it were possible.” New Zealand had involved itself in difficulties, and it would be difficult, in the present circumstances, to let the Samoans govern themselves. If there was to be government for the Samoans, it must be a government by Samoans with the best

assistance New Zealand could give them. It was not a matter of quantity in regard to assistance, but of quality. Sir Apirana instanced the very successful government of India by Great Britain, and pointed out that there there were representatives of governing houses in England controlling the Indian Civil Service. What Samoa wants, he said, is a fair, reasonable, understanding, and sympathetic British administration. “You could pick from anj r where in this country just the type I have in mv mind,” he said. “Let it appear as if they are running themselves blit run them at the same time. I think you know exactly the type I have in my mind. You have to be very tactful. MUST RETAIN MANDATE “I agree with Mr. Coates that New Zealand must retain this mandate and must never give it up. In the interests of the Samoans we may have to adjust, and will adjust, our attitude, but let it be British all the time. You can put it two ways. The best that any native race can possibly do is to come into contact with British administration, or, from the point of view of the Polynesian, it is the least harmful. “I have always said that it was the best thing for the Polynesians that they came under the government of the British; I say the same to Samoa. If Britain had the same control all along there probably would not have been the trouble we have today. “When the member for Christchurch South asked the House to agree to his amendment I want my friends on this side to understand that it is merely a matter of interpretation. There has always been a difference of opinion in the House on the subject. If Samoa were a country suitable for European settlement we wouldn’t have hear> of Samoa for Samoans. Under the mandate we would have acquired land for settlement and transferred New Zealand problems holus bolus to Samoa. We would have had a little New Zealand. Perhaps it would have been better for them. “One has lived long enough in this world to realise that when land is not only habitable, but also suitable for occupation, the nations of the world come along and occupy it. “What should have been done, \ if there had been time, and if we had not been obsessed with problems after the war was to have a complete ethnological survey of the Samoans and their conditions. . “TAiHOA” THE BEST “Parliament does not like the use j of these scientific terms, l know, but after all what was wanted was a study ! of Samoa to find out what the customs \ were and the best way to apply the knowledge of them. We have not done that. We sent down a very worthy general who was everything but an ethnologist. I have read the reports of the Administrator, and no more well-intentioned man stood in his boots than Major-General Sir George Richardson. “I have read reports of what Sir George Richardson wanted to do, but they would have to be done at the right time and in the right order. It would have taken two generations, with frequent backslidings, for the Samoans to arrive at the stage he desired. What was wanted was the ‘taihoa’ policy of the late Sir James Carroll instead of hustling methods. “Before any Polynesian is asked to go down to Samoa we have to determine for ourselves this question, whether the Government was right in enforcing laws and regulations that were, under the circumstances, reasonable, I won’t say unjust, upon the Samoans who were not ready to receive them. The Samoans put themselves offside by not actually receiving those ordinances and regulations, and therefore, in the eyes of the law, they become law-breakers. Having got into that position they are now asked by this country to get on side, and to recognise and admit that they have broken the law. That seems to be the position we have got into. “A Polynesian’s explanation might be this. - ‘Technically I have broken the law because, in my opinion, the law was too hasty and unreasonable, and 1 was incapable of carrying it out. Would it not be better for the parent in New Zealand to consider whether it should not make a concession in regard to the legal position.* That seems to be the trouble now, to my humble way of thinking. What is needed is a diplomatist, one of those gentlemen educated at Geneva (laughter), to arrive at some formula to save the face of the Government of New Zealand. The thing is just a legal difficulty and a round table conference with the Samoans and certain others would adjust the position. The people of New Zealand will do the fair thing. From the standpoint of the Maori the situation is a very tunny one. I appeal to the member for Christchurch South to withdraw his amendment. Mr. Howard: I'll let it go on the ! voices after that very fine speech. The amendment was lost on the voices and the motion carried.