SAMOA ADMINISTRATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1922, Page 8

SAMOA ADMINISTRATION.

AUSTRALIAN COMMENTS. By Telegraph.—Press Assn —Copyright. Sydney, July 12. The Sydney Morning Herald, in a leader dealing with the administrat’on of mandated territories, referring to the New Zealand official report on Samoa, says that some criticism regarding Samoa no doubt should be discounted as emanating from vested interests, which have been prejudiced by the humanitarian policy of the Government. Moreover, the expropriated Germans were naturally inclined to disparage the effort of their successors, but a charge which appears to have some substance is that under the new regime there haa been no economic and no commercial progress. The German planters knew their work and how to handle native labor so as to get more out of it. Since they departed, the management of estates has been less effective. The new-comers lacked practical experience, labor has become less amenable, and the productivity of the plantations has diminished. After r reference to the difficulties of the situation, including the troubles arising from the Prohibition law, the paper says: “Nevertheless progress has been made. The Administration can point to substantial achievements in public Works, education and public health, and we can hope that as the memory of grievances fades, the obstructiveness in certain quarters will be replaced by a spirit of willing cooperation.”