A.—4.

11. NATIVE AFFAIRS. Policy. lii carrying out the policy of the New Zealand Government to promote to the utmost the interests of the Samoan race, the Administration during the past year has concentrated its efforts upon three essentials, viz. : (1 ) Health, (2) Education, (3) Agricultural Development. Any advancement of the Natives to a higher standard of prosperity can only be in proportion to the extent to which they respond to our efforts in these matters. The Samoans are, however, a conservative people, and do not readily adopt Dew ideas; therefore their progress must necessarily be slow. Health of the Natives. What has been done to improve the health of the Natives is fully detailed in the Chief Medical Officer's Departmental Report herewith. Reference" should also be made to the report by Dr. S. M. Lambert of the International Health Board of the 1 ! Rockefeller Foundation.* Dr. Lambert visited Samoa in July of last year and accompanied me on b my official tour of the Island of Savai'i, when, as an independent and impartial observer, he had exceptional opportunities of seeing the majority of the Natives in their own villages. His information was based on his own personal observations, and the report of this well-known and able expert on tropical diseases can be taken as a very valuable one. From my own observations there is a very marked improvement in the health of the Natives and a conspicuous absence of the unsightly cases of yaws which as recently as two years ago were so prevalent. The infantile mortality is, however, still very high, and will continue to be so as long as the mothers treat sickness by their old Samoan customs, and continue to feed their infants on indigestible taro. This is a matter of such great importance to the future welfare of the race that the Chief Medical Officer has submitted a " child welfare " scheme which will be put into effect this year. The successful results already obtained in one district by Dr. Roberts, who has given her services voluntarily to educate and interest the mothers in the care and feeding of their children, are proof of what can be achieved in other districts if a sufficient number of trained nurses is available for this important work. The vital statistics for the past year are also an indication of improvement in the health of the Natives, the natural increase for the year being the highest on record—viz., 1,123, or 3-26 per cent, of the total population. The Samoan race can therefore be known as a healthy and increasing one, with prospects of doubling its present numbers within the next forty or fifty years. Education. While the policy of the Government in matters of health has already produced a marked and rapid improvement of the Samoan race, the same cannot be said of education. This is perhaps only natural; the physical fitness of an individual generally responds quickly to proper medical treatment, but his mental outlook cannot be improved and completely changed in a short time. It will take many years before our educational efforts have made any marked improvement in the psychology of the people. One of the chief reasons for this is that the great majority of pupils after they leave school return to their villages and become absorbed in its communal life with its old and firmly established customs, which afford little opportunity to apply knowledge gained at school other than that which has a direct bearing on agriculture and handicraft. The policy which I have been instructed by the Government to carry out is not to educate the Samoans to become European in their outlook, but to make them better Samoans, with a pride of race and a love of country and a desire to promote their material wealth by increased efforts to develop their lands. There is difficulty in deciding as to the best means of carrying out this policy, but I have been assisted by the Education Board, an advisory committee consisting of local residents, including representatives of the missions, and by the Superintendent of Schools himself, who is an able and enthusiastic man in his work, and who, fortunately, has been teaching in Samoa for six years and thereby has gained valuable local experience. The advice I have received from these sources, together with my own observations, has led to a change in the system of education, which now takes more into consideration the present and future requirements of the Native race and the part the Samoans are required to play in the development of this country. The excellent work of education carried out almost entirely by the missions for nearly a century merits the admiration of the Government and gratitude of the people. Each mission in this Territory has expressed its desire to help the Administration in its work of advancing the interest and welfare of the Natives. During last year Government financial assistance to mission schools took the form of the Government paying the salary of the head teacher in each of the newly established second-grade or district mission schools, subject to these teachers being trained under the Superintendent of Schools and attending refresher courses at the Government schools every year, and, furthermore, provided that the syllabus of the assisted mission schools should conform to our requirements, and that each school be inspected by the Government. This system is working well, and new schools are being opened. In fact, requests for more schools are continually being made, an indication that the Natives are awakening to the necessity for a more general and advanced education for their children than that given by practically the only means available in the past —viz., by the Native pastor in the village schools. The organization of the educational system in Samoa is shown by the diagram on page 4.

* See Report of the Health Department of Western Samoa, published as a supplement to this report.

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