WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 October 1916, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE DOMINION'S FOREIGN POLICY. WHAT WE HAVE WE HOLD. (From Our Own Correspondent')'. I Wellington, October 27. | Probably' the cable alluding to what Mr. Massey said, in his address to the Pilgrims' Club on "Wednesday night scarcely represents what the. Prime Minister intended to convey to his audience. "New Zealand is holding German Samoa for tin; Empire," are the words attributed to him by the authpr of the message, "but we mean to keep it." Without straining the meaning of the words, this might be taken to imply that while New Zealand was content to set as agent for the Imperial authorities in the meantime, its aspiration was to ultimately control the occupied territory on its own account, But it seems more likely that Mr. Massey used the personal pronoun in the wide Imperial sense—"we, tho British Empire"—not in the restricted sense—"we, the people of New Zealand." Thirty years ago., however, an Annexation Act was actually passed by the New Zealand Parlinmsnt which provided for the whole of Samoa being taken over by this country. The measure wag vetoed by the Imperial Government, which at that time vai not taking colonial statesmen so fully into its confidence as it is doing to-day, and some years later the islands were the subject of a diplomatic deal between Britain and Germany, which the whole Empire is now regretting. For some reason Germany did not majes the good use she might have done of bar bargain, and when the war broke out she, as everyone knows, was promptly ousted from what she had been expected to make her stronghold in the Pacific. A (PAGE OF HISTORY. Ycc. John Lnndon, who at one. time was an Auckland citizen engaged in a trading venture in Samoa, was chiefly responsible for the attempt, at annexation by tho New Zealand Government. In ISB3 Mr. Lundon came into conflict iwith the Germans in Samoa,-which was then under the triple jurisdiction of Britain, France and Germany, through the German flag being raised at Apia. Tho German authorities ware carrying things with a high hand, and, putting a rope across one of the streets of the town, threatened instant death ta anyone who crossed the barrier. Mr. Lundon, in broad daylight and in full view of half the population of the place, deliberately cut the rope and walked over the section tabooed by the Germans, and nothing happened to him. This incident broke the German mana with the natives, and shortly afterwards tho Samoan Parliament, largely influenced by Mr. Lundon, made overtuies to the New Zealand Government, and the Annexation Act of 1885 was the result. In 1894 Mr. Seddon, who had become Prime Minister in succession to Mr. Ballance, seriously revived the question of annexation, but again the Imperial authorities discouraged the movement, and nothing was done. SOLDIERS' SETTLEMENT At the sitting of the Wellington Land Board yesterday it was reported that a number of discharged soldiers who hud been allotted sections at a previous sitting had not seen their way to take them up, and the bare mtntion of the fact in the newspapers might create the impression that the men returning from the front were less eager to get on to the land than it was hoped they would be. But this is not the case. The demand for small holdings of good land,' particularly for dairy farms, is very keen, a-.id the local board is making every possible effort to satisfy it. There is, practically, no land of this, description remaining in tho bands of the State, and private owners, for the most part, are asking prices which are uivond the Board's ideas of present values. Most of the men who have failed to take up sections allotted to them are men with limited capital, who on second thoughts have decided to apply for smaller holding:;- offering a better prospect if speedy returns. Soldiers' settlement is now occupying so much of the time of all the commissioners that the appointment of an o.Ticei to devote himself entirely to thjs b".sine.-,s is being considered. There certainly is plenty of scope for the activities of such an officer.