SAMOANS DEFENDED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 962, 3 May 1930, Page 8

SAMOANS DEFENDED

MR. HOLLAND CRITICAL OF ADMINISTRATION ‘PRINCIPLES VIOLATED” “Law and order never were jeopardised by the Samoans,” declared the Leader of the Labour Party, Mr. H. E. Holland, in the course of a scathing criticism of the methods employed by the Reform and the United Governments in Samoa, at his address last evening in the Newmarket Munich pal Hall. “The Reform and the United Parties aro united as far as this subject is concerned," Mr. Holland said. “The Minister of Labour, the Hon. W. A. Veitcli, has spoken of subversive influences as the cause of friction, and has said that law and order have been restored. They were never jeopardised by tho Samoans. Anyone who has read Samoan history must know that. “Tho Reform candidate for Parnell, Mr. W. P. Endean, has said that any attempt at disorder should be suppressed, and that he considered the Reform and tho United Governments had discharged their duties. I fail to see liovv tho shooting of Tamasese and tho imprisonment of Tuimalcaliifano could help tho position. The Samoans, in my opinion, are as capable as the Tongans, who, under Queen Salote, govern themselves successfully. Mi*. Endean said tho talk of 'Samoa for tho Samoans’ was as ridiculous as saying that children should control a kindergarten, I say that Mr. Endean does not know anything about the Samoans. They aro kindred to the Maoris, and Mr. Endean’s remark, applied to the Maoris, would be insulting." “SAMOA FOR SAMOANS” Proceeding, Mr. Holland said the Reform Party had known that “Samoa for the Samoans" was contemplated. In 1927 Sir Maui Pomaro had said the ultimate object of New Zealand’s mandate should bo that the Samoans should govern Samoa. The Right Hon. J. G. Coates had subscribed to that view, too. Undoubtedly that was the purpose of tho mandate. Describing tho shooting at Apia as “shocking,” Mr. Holland said he did not care who was responsible, when it was patently clear that the Ward Government was primarily to blame. Tracing the history of Samoa as it affected New Zealand, Mr. Holland said that Upolu Island was handed to the Germans in 1901, and then Savai’i Island for other colonial holdings. The Germans proceeded to rule Samoa with their “despotic efficiency," and the Imperial Governor, by proclamation, took the right of banishment from the native leaders. Tho Samoans rejected tho right of foreigners to repudiate the titles conferred originally by the people on their leaders. “New Zealand took Samoa from Germany,” Mr. Holland went on to say, “and every repressive proclamation New' Zealand has enacted has been based on tho German Imperial Governor’s proclamation of 1901. Colonel Tato failed to enforce it, and then came Major-General Sir George Richardson. It was the mistake of sending military-minded men. who did not understand the Samoans. MajorGeneral Richardson began to apply the principles of local banishment, and to tell Samoan leaders to take lower family names instead of chiefly names. Ho banished them from village to village and from island to island. He roused resentment.” “CRIMINAL AND STUPID" Referring to tho Apia shooting, Mr. Holland said: “Someone criminal and stupid enough to give an order to arrest men, during a native procession, for not paying taxes. Whoever gave the order was guilty of a criminal act. Tamasese was exhorting his people to b© peaceful, and was requesting the police not to shoot, when ho was shot down. “You may wonder why the three leading chiefs of the Mau were victims. There seems to me to be truth in the statement that they were deliberately sniped. It was an almost dastardly act on our part.” Tho Germans failed when they sent gunboats to collect poll tax, but Reform and the Unitecls liad acted similarly, the speaker added. When the Mau was declared seditious, practically all Samoa was declared seditious. Hardly had the Hon. J. G. Cobbe left Samoa after arranging a meeting with representatives of tho Mau, than 50 or 60 of tho organisation were arrested for wearing purple lava-lavas. Two thousand women of Samoa answered that action by marching in the streets of Apia in purple. Labour would recognise the basic principles of tho mandate, and would adopt a policy of conciliation. It would end local banishment, the present orders of exile, the deprivation of leading Samoans of their titles, punishment without trial, and “proclamations based on the German one.” Mr. Coates had said that men had been exiled, not for what they had done, but for what they might do.