Samoans Get Along Without Us

Very Well—Up To A Point

By Judy Tudor

THE ability of the Samoans to accept the added res ponsibilities of their new [constitution has been a source of satisfaction to New Zealand ac cording to the latest annual report of the Department of Island [Territories. Many Europeans, in cluding the heads of the biggest [firms, agree that the experiment in self government is going along ■'“quite well.” The Samoans them selves are certainly pleased with

[their efforts.

f And, to-day, what the majority [want is right.

There are naturally those on the bther side of the fence, Europeans of long residence, who insist that [this political freedom has been handed over in over-large doses to the Samoans, with the result that a numerous species of political hoodlum has been bred in the and that the civil con dition of the country is far from good. They quote the various crime waves that they have experienced— the murders, bashings and robberies that have occurred in the last five

Shears.

f Conservative opinion says also

that the present-day representatives of the High Chiefs have too much power and that it is not always

wisely used.

To comment at all on these opinions would be an impertinence, without devoting about 12 months’ study to the whole set up on the spot, and from the ground up.

Therefore this article claims to be no more than a very superficial impression gained on a very brief visit to the Territory.

LET me say, here and now, that these brief visits of mine to Samoa and Tonga, too were the most interesting of my recent trip. The only thing that would have made it more interest ing would have been to have had a party of a dozen of my most con servative friends from New Guinea along—those who complain loudest and oftenest that they don’t know what the world, and the New Guinea native, are coming to. (And here I think particularly of that man who, through PIM. objected so strongly to three Papuans attending an ANZAC dinner in Brisbane).

This is an area in which the revolution is not away off on the horizon somewhere. It has happened, and the European, as such, just does not matter any more. The fact that you have been born with a white hide, instead of a brown one, is a liability rather than an asset.

The Matua, which does for Fiji,

the Samoas, Tonga, etc., what the Bulolo and Malaita do for Papua- New Guinea, is very crowded and, until now r , has been doing the w'ork of two ships. You know this in advance but, nonetheless, I filled in many odd moments while on her, trying to see things through the eyes of some of our P-NG readers, and being considerably entertained thereby.

For example, one morning when we were at Apia, it started to drizzle. The Samoan stevedores immediately left the winches and what they were about, and stretched themselves out in the passengers’ deck chairs. Has this happened yet on the NG ships?

Then the rule up there is that anyone who has the fare has an equal chance of accommodation

with everyone else. Therefore yoi may be called upon to share a cabii with Indians, Samoans or Tongan —or even be put into the dormitor; accommodation of the Jungle (i used to be the Matua’s lounge with a couple of dozen Samoai mothers and their children. Thi happened to some European Suvi nurses on the September trip.

Most Europeans object to this not necessarily because they fee superior, as some of the Islander think, but because they just hav different ideas of what is com fortable.

There seems no scope for beini very much of an individualist, u Polynesia. It is a case of, if th moo sings, you sing—or lump it Therefore, as the Polynesians out numbered the Europeans in thes parts on board or ashore th European finds himself very mud in the position of lumping it.

Going to Apia, I shared a two berth deck cabin with an elderl; European woman. On the returi trip I shared it with a youni Samoan girl. She came on boan with a crowd of her friends swathed to the ears in a successioi of frangipanni leis; she shed man; tears as the ship pulled out, thei washed all her underclothes am hung them in the cabin, and go into her bunk. She was still ther two days later when we got int Suva; and I imagine that she con tinued on to Auckland in the sam way. She had two Europea]

stewards and the stewardess danc ing attendance on her, and they seemed to take it as a matter of

fcourse.

Between the islands ports Matua carries deck passengers." They bring their mats and bed-clothes and i embroidered pillows and suitcases, and camp on the hatches under ftarpaulins; and spread out in the f alley-way that runs around out |Side the deck cabins, and spill into ; the lobby between what should be the lounge (and is the Jungle) and the dining saloon.

I My cabin opened into this lobby and every time I left it I had [literally to wade knee-deep through [Samoans or Tongans and rolls of

[mats.

I For this reason, the door of the cabin had to remain shut, and the window shutter permanently closed, if you did not want to provide free enter lainment for the continual procession along the alley way.

Shutting the door and window made it very hot, but it also helped to keep out some of the noise of babies crying, people being sick or the perpetual strumming of ukeleles and guitars. There are only two ways about these people—if they are nut making music of some sort, then they are sick.

I am not complaining about this —just stating a fact. It proves not only that the Matua is far too small for the job she was called upon to do (from December, she will be assisted by the new Tofua) but also that, unlike Melanesia—where to be European is still to be privileged— here you compete with the native inhabitants whether it is for a Chance to use the bathroom, or for a job.

Tourism

SIX years ago there was much talk in Western Samoa of the establishment of a tourist industry. There seems not so much interest in the subject to-day possibly because, while cocoa and copra are bringing rich returns, there is no real need.

Tourism requires more, anyhow, than to sit on BP’s verandah in Apia and sell baskets and strings of shells; and in their present state pf prosperity I just cannot see that the Samoans are conditioned to receiving large numbers of tourists as they should be received in contrast with their cousins in American Samoa, who are looking for an industry to replace lost Navy incomes.

On my previous visit to Apia I complained, somewhat bitterly, that in the whole long length of Apia waterfront, which is the business centre of the Territory, there was absolutely nowhere where a visitor could sit and rest. There still isn’t, pnless you sit on the ground under the few trees along the harbour or squat on the edge of a shop verandah.

Between appointments, I walked until my legs threatened to give up; and then I found a large peanut tin—4-gallons size—in Morris Hedstrom’s new store, where I sat and consumed fizzy drinks to give me a legitimate excuse for being there.

If there were waterfront seats Samoans would be sitting on them, anyhow. And if they were marked “For Europeans Only” there would be a yell that this was a plain case of “racial discrimination”; and if

they were marked “For Visitors,” that would not please many more, TMniNTRv fTVHE Samoans, to-day, give the X impression of being happy, prosperous, full of confidence, They obviously feel that there is nothing they themselves cannot do in shaping the destiny of their own country. They may be right.

But one thing they seem to leave right out of their calculations is the fact that this happiness and con

[fidence, to a large extent, depend fon their prosperity, and that their prosperity, at present, very much [depends on the outside European ► world continuing to buy their copra and cocoa. Should the bottom fall [out of these markets, what then? ; There is the banana industry [which is capable of considerable expansion for the NZ market [(Samoan bananas now are much (superior in quality to Fijian) but fthe greatest problem at present

tolmana

Eer and COSt aboUt 7/ ' r . . , There seems to be scope here for a local case-timber industry. Fiji recent years has made great [strides in this direction and reduced ithe cost of exporting bananas con-

jSideraoly.

According to Mr. G. R. Powles, the High Commissioner, there is also a planned expansion of the local beef industry, and the manufacture of desiccated coconut, which has a ready sale in the Dominion. He said that there had also been a strong suggestion that they should begin the manufacture of soap.

M9st Pacific communities ineluding Tonga and American Samoa seems to be toying with the Idea of making soap—which perhaps is a natural outcome of their engagement with the copra

industry. But how much soap do these people use? If all are to try it, will their home markets be sufficient to give adequate return on the capital outlay of setting up factories?

It is doubtful. Soap manufactur in S has been flourishing in Fiji for years. It has a reasonably large trade to other Pacific Groups but it has not ousted popular overseas brands entirely,

Euronesians

316 f° Ut <f°

1 present,* 11 ZfTppSt^

5,000 of part-European descent, but f o r all political and practical pur poses these people are classed as full Europeans. There is no plan, within the wider plan of total Samoan independence to “do some thing for them” as a group.

Unless they are members of the old European planting or business families, in the main they are landless, the Samoan patrilineal social set-up more or less auto matically precluding them from the inheritance of land through their mothers, who are generally the Samoan partners in any Samoan- Foreign alliance. (In other parts of the Pacific, where inheritance of property is through the female line, part-European children can fare much better.) There is no tendency in Samoa for a part-Samoan to emerge as

either a leader of the Samoans or of people of mixed descent. They can and do become leaders of the European community—but like the full European their days appear numbered in a population of 80,000 aggressively nationalistic full- Samoans.

The High Commissioner, when asked about these people, said that

some of them were already solving this problem for themselves by re nouncing European status and tak ing Samoan. I do not know sufficient of the Samoan community set-up to know how this is likely to work. But some of the older Euro pean residents, when told of this expression of opinion by the HC, said that it was not so—that people

of European-status were most un likely to renounce it.

A large proportion of the younger members of families of mixed descent have solved the problem in recent years by migrating to New Zealand where, under post-war conditions of labour shortages, they find no difficulty in getting per

manent employment and setting u] permanent homes.

In this, as in other ways, it cai be said that the future of th Euronesian in Samoa is exactl; the same as that of tne Europea: —there just is no future for thei sons and daughters.

IN conclusion, just a couple o stray observations on the stat of affairs in the Territory.

I was struck by the fact that th five European members of th Legislative Assembly seemed not t adhere to any hard and fas sectionalised interest in publi affairs. They seemed just as kee: for Samoans to manage their ow affairs as the Samoans themselves and just as anxious that th Territory should be regarded a adult and not tied to anyone' apron-strings.

And they have their “dolla problems”. Current moan is tha restrictions prevent the importatio of American canned fish, whid retails for 1/10 against th alternative, imported NZ canne meat, which costs 3/-. Howeve dollar shortages seem not to hav unduly restricted the importatio of American cars; and in the store there seem to be plentifi supplies of American sweets, break fast foods, groceries, orange juic and canned goods.