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felt that salaries and other conditions of appointment involved discrimination against local people, and gave little opportunity or stimulus for them to get further training or to rise in the service. The lack of trained professional and technical personnel for fuller self-government than is possible now was blamed directly upon past New Zealand educational and administrative policies. 84. The recruitment and training of a staff with the technical competence and personal qualities necessary to carry on the varied and complex tasks of administration is essential to the development of self-government in the Territory. To realize this objective the Mission recommends the creation of a Public Service of Western Samoa. All classified employees should be required to declare their loyalty to the Government of Western Samoa during their term of service. 85. In place of the present control and supervision exercised at a distance by the New Zealand Public Service Commission it believes that a Public Service Commission should be developed in the Territory. Such a Public Service Commission would be composed of representatives of the administering authority and of the resident population. It might include a member of the New Zealand Public Service Commission in order to co-ordinate its work with that body, and because overseas personnel will have to be seconded as now mainly from the New Zealand Public Service. 86. The principle should be recognized that preference in appointments should be given in so far as possible to residents of the Territory. It is clear, however, and the petitioners agree, that the proper functioning of the governmental machinery cannot be assured for the present, or for some years to come, by using locally recruited personnel exclusively. The Territory lacks educational institutions suitable for training Samoans, and even local Europeans have had but limited opportunity of gaining administrative experience. Nevertheless, it must be recognized that competence cannot be acquired except by carrying responsibilities and engaging in the concrete work* of government. It is necessary to break this vicious circle, even if that means the risk of a temporary slackening of efficiency. There are already, among the locally recruited personnel, officials who are able to fill, either without additional training or after a training period in New Zealand or elsewhere, positions higher than their present ones. They should be advanced to such positions as rapidly as possible. 87. At present seventy-one classified staff positions are filled from overseas, particularly in the health, education, treasury, and customs, postal and radio, and public works Departments. While the existing situation may be revised, the total number probably cannot be substantially reduced for some time. The Government of Tonga, for comparison, still has twenty-seven staff members from overseas.