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" more laws added ; the Administration have not retired from fields occupied by private enterprise, " but have made further encroachments into them ; the heavy export duties and Chinese overhead " charges still remain a heavy burden on the private planters, so new capital finds no scope. " The New Zealand Government stands by and allows these conditions to come about, tlras " signifying its endorsement of them. The New Zealand Government continues to send glowing " reports to the League of Nations, thus soliciting world praise, when the people of Samoa are " crying for deliverance. The Administrator sets up a small band of Samoan chiefs and Tulafale, " whom he ennobles and upon whom he confers much honour and power, so as to ensure their " loyalty to him in his campaign against the free utterance of the Natives' aspirations. The Minister " responsible for the welfare of the people of Samoa, before coming to Samoa, openly expresses his " confidence in the Administrator and his Faipules. On his arrival here he lives as the guest of the " Administrator, and allows himself to be taken to such places and to interview such people as the " Administrator directs." Hon. Minister: That is absolutely untrue. I have been free. I have stayed at Government House, but I have been free to come and go as I liked, and have gone where I wished on my own, without the Administrator. I have been able to see things for myself without any instigation from him in any shape or form. lam not a puppet. That is a very incorrect statement.J| |y Mr. Nelson : I made that statement because before your arrival the programme for five days was published. Hon. Minister : A programme was outlined of what I would do. Naturally I would go to the residence of the Administrator of the islands if he invited me ; but I have been a free man and able to go where I liked. When I did arrive in Samoa Ido not think there was one of the committee even called on me, which they might have done : everybody just treated me as if I had not come at all. When I arrived here it was the King's birthday, and I attended sports and a ball at Government House. You all profess to be such loyal supporters of His Majesty, and yet I found, without asking, that there was an opposition ball and opposition sports. Mr. Williams : We were not invited. Hon. Minister: There is only one thing for a citizen to do in a British community with an Administrator or Governor-General: any citizen who likes to go to Government House and write his name in the book as a caller is then in a position to be invited by the Administrator or His Excellency the Governor-General. In New Zealand nobody expects to be asked to Government House who does not first call and put his name in the visitors' book. Mr. Williams : That has been done scores of times. Hon. Minister : You have to do it within twelve months. Twenty or ten years ago is not a call in an official sense. Mr. Nelson : The opposition ball was arranged at the last moment to show that in spite of the people not being asked to " Vailima" we were just as loyal to the King; everything was conducted with the respect due to the birthday of His Majesty the King. Hon. Minister: I have my own opinion about that. One birthday celebration was quite sufficient for the occasion : there may be other occasions when that sort of thing would be all right. There is an Administrator on behalf of the Government of New Zealand in Samoa at the present time. In the natural course of events somebody else will be appointed when his time expires. It is quite evident to me from what I have seen since I came to Samoa that there is room for only one Administrator on behalf of the Government, and there is no room for anybody else who is trying to take upon himself the function of government or leadership of the people. In other words, there can be no Governor and no Mr. Nelson acting at the same time. Mr. Nelson : It seems that you do not want the people to have any organization. Hon. Minister : I like things done in a proper way. There is a wrong way of doing them. Mr. Nelson : lam entitled to know in which way I have aped the Government. Is it because I happen to have a big house and spend my money on myself ? Hon. Minister : What I am referring to is the functions clashing. Mr. Nelson : One can have a function on the King's Birthday in one's own house. I ask, concerning myself, is it just because that function was held for others to show their respect to the King, that I am charged by you with posing as Governor ? Hon. Minister : I have no comments to make outside the statement I have already made. Mr. Nelson: Are we here to listen to you make charges against us without any right of reply ? Hon. Minister: lam not stopping you ; but we do not need to continue these personal aspects. Mr. Nelson: Charges may be made as much as you like against us by the Administration, but whenever we reply or make representations or criticisms we are told we are trying to fement trouble, trying to usurp authority, or trying to ape the Government. Is that the position ? Hon. Minister: No, I did not say that. What I said was the causing of political unrest. Mr. Nelson : In respect to political unrest, had the Administrator given the people a fair chance to air their views and to outline any suggestions made by the people, and had he recognized the rights of the people, there would have been no unrest: "He allows the inspired Faipules to tell him that ' all is well' when within a mile away there " were thousands of representative Samoans who were waiting to tell him that the Administrator and " the Faipules, through their own deliberate acts, have been utterly discredited by the people. His " speeches to the Faipule only encourage them to further resist the whole of the people whom they " are supposed to represent, thus setting up the few against the many. The programme which he " follows throughout does not inspire the confidence of the people that he is conducting an impartial " investigation. Nevertheless, we have every confidence in the cause of the people, for surely ' there " is a higher law than the Constitution,' as Seward reminds us.

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