New Zealand's Troubles in Western Samoa

Abstract

NEW ZEALAND'S governance of Western Samoa has been fraught with increasing difficulty and disillusionment. The capture of the islands in 1914 appeared to be a long-deferred fulfilment of the dreams of successive generations of New Zealand statesmen ? Grey, Selwyn, Vogel and Seddon ? all of whom saw their country as the natural leader of the island peoples. Their vision ranged as far as Hawaii, which even in 1897 Seddon urged both upon the Colonial Conference and upon President McKinley and Secretary Sherman as a rightful field for annexation by New Zealand. The failure of British states men to develop a Monroe Doctrine for the south Pacific caused chagrin in New Zealand, and vigorous protests were made to the Colonial Office as French, German and American influence extended there. Annexation of the Cook Islands in 1901 was small consolation. Trouble began almost immediately after the capture of Samoa at the begin ning of the World War. The incidents of the first few years indicated that New Zealand had undertaken a more complicated task than she realized. The im portation of more indentured Chinese laborers, which was strongly opposed by the Labor Party, and the liquidation and reorganization of the German plantations as a state enterprise struck at the foundations of Samoa's com mercial progress. In 1918-19 official negligence allowed the influenza epidemic to enter the islands. The American Navy, which successfully fought the epidemic in American,Samoa, proferred help; but its services were not accepted and thousands of natives died, leaving behind them a memory that years of effective public health work has failed to soften. The Paris Peace Conference gave New Zealand a mandate over the island, and a period of calm succeeded the troubles of the war years. It lasted until 1926, when the New Zealand Administrator quarreled with a group of promi nent European traders. There is ample evidence that energetic measures, especially in public health, were taken in this period. The New Zealand offi cials had the best intentions. Their mistakes were of method and understanding. There can be no reasonable doubt that the more recent difficulties, which have just culminated in military intervention and a riot in which eight Sa moans, including the high chief Tamasese, lost their lives, date from the agita tion launched by disaffected white traders at a meeting held on October 15, 1926. From this meeting sprang both the Citizens' Committee and the Mau, or native league. The Citizens' Committee, headed by the Hon. O. F. Nelson, must bear a large share of the responsibility for arousing the natives, always prone to intrigue, to a state of rebellion and defiance of authority. It is a pity that they did not remember the wise old chief's remark to Robert Louis Stevenson: I begin to be tired of white men on the beach. Subsequent mishandling of the situation has now presented the Citizen's Committee with excellent material for agitation on behalf of the natives; but a dispassionate examination of the documentary evidence proves conclusively