Abstract
f''I OOD GOVERNMENT, the late Lord Baldwin once remarked, T no substitute for It is a maxim which has almost attained the status of a proverb in many parts of the colonial world. To the leaders of dependent peoples in Africa, Asia and the Pacific it seems to give expression to the innumerable small resentments which government by even the wisest and best-intentioned of outsiders must arouse. To colonial administrators it has many times been the unwelcome herald of political dissension, a source of irritation and of genuine perplexity, for, like the dispensers of charity, they have expected their actions to call forth only applause. In Western Samoa Lord Baldwin's words were inscribed on banners carried by a procession to welcome the United Nations mission which visited the Territory in I947. They had already become familiar, through quotation in the speeches of the High Chief Tamasese. They will be remembered in the future, but, if affairs develop satisfactorily, they will express an unopposed article of political belief, not serve as a rallying cry of opposition. For, this year Western Samoa is taking the first steps towards complete self-government. The Samoa Group lies in the centre of Polynesia, between approximately I730 and i680 west longitude and W30 and i50 south latitude. Western Samoa, which is administered by New Zealand in accordance with a United Nations Trusteeship Agreement, has a land area of about II30 square miles, or roughly 93 per cent of the total area of the group. It includes the two large islands of Upolu and Savai'i and a number of smaller islands lying between them and off their coasts. The population is about 72,000, of which 66,ooo are native Samoans. The Territory is entirely agricultural. Its main exports are copra, cocoa and bananas, which in i945 attained values, respectively, of /339,842, /I75,45i and ?67,472. Of copra produced in that year, 89 per cent came from native producers and ii per cent from European plantations. With cocoa the
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