Criticism Of Selections

The Month In Western Samoa

Criticism Of Selections For New Cabinet

From R. F. Rankin, in Apia The only surprise following the first West Samoan elections since independence was the Prime Minister’s choice of three new Cabinet Ministers. The elections themselves were very quiet, with a common-sense result, and with votes being cast by 90 per cent, of those eligible.

[HAVE been guided in my choice of Ministers by the inspiration f God,” said Fiame Mataafa aumuania Mulinuu 11, a few days fter the Assembly had re-elected im Prime Minister, unopposed, for further three years (or until his Jovemment is removed by a noonfidence motion, which is a distinct ossibility unless Government conimiPR tn run smoothlvY

Tut before MatS announced

he names in the Assembly, very few leople thought any of the new Minsters would have had any chance of election The three new faces are: . • 61-year-old veteran politician falamaivao Ulualofaiga Vaela’a, who s Minister of Health. Strongly conicrvative and reportedly embittered it missing out on ministerial selecion in 1961, Talamaivao has spent nore time attacking the Government n the past three years than in offerng constructive suggestions. • 49-year-old one time school- ;eacher, and for the last 22 years a clerical employee of O. F. Nelson md Co., Laufili Time, who is new Minister of Agriculture. Laufili first entered the Assembly in 1961. He bas proved to be an enthusiastic debater, speaking on most tropics Linder discussion, but in the main his contributions have been neither particulariy original nor of much substance.

O 62-year-old newcomer to politics and former Court interpreter and Registrar of Lands and Titles Court, Papalii Poumau, CBE, who has been given the portfolio of Education. He is the greatest surprise of the selections.

Former Minister of Agriculture Asiata Lagolago was dropped from the Cabinet, and former Minister of Education Tuatagaloa Leutele was switched to Justice.

Other Ministers, G. F. D. Betham

(Finance), F. C. F. Nelson (Public Works), Toomata and Faalavaau Gain (Post Office and Radio) retained th e‘ r P ort f° >° s m .

In answer to Press cr cism o the new selections, and claims that obvicmslylrettermcn w’ereoverlooked, the Public Relations Office, in weekly programme, Oe ma lou Male (You and Your Gove me) which is broadcast over 2AP, stated that it was better to have Ministers with little knowledge and who worked hard, than to have smart Ministers who got nowhere.

“It’s no good having Ministers who talk too much and cause trouble m Cabinet, the Office said, Public Relations is a part of the Prime Ministers Department, ' „ , , c 1%/TEANWHILE in the midst of changing times and at the start of an era of revolutionary economic development, Prime Minister Mataafa, in his sneech after his re election to the office, illustrated how much so many top Samoans still cling to the past.

“I do not say this because I have been re-elected through our customs and traditional relationships, but I assure the House that once we de viate or stray away from our customs and traditions God knows what will happen to our country,” he said, At the other end of the scale, and representing a still unknown quantity, is the young Samoan public servant with a NZ university education who was a polling clerk at a more distant booth during the recent elections, He was reported to have told the successful candidate, “I’m just help ing you people out. This my country, I don’t get a vote.”

“It’s time you took a matai title,” he was told.

“I think 1 have a clear enough mind to enable me to choose the best

:andidate without my needing a itle to do so,” replied the young nan.

A FTER a struggle against top level apathy in the Agriculture De jartment, FAO marketing and sugar sxpert P. J. van de Goes at the end 3f April finally was successful in producing the first sugar ever milled n Samoa.

The mill, situated on a 600-acre )lock of Government land atVaivase, ;wo miles out of Apia, can produce me ton of sugar a day. It was given ;o Western Samoa by the FAO Freedom from Hunger Campaign.

The sugar is fairly fine textured and light brown in colour. It is tioped that by the expansion of this industry at a small-scale village level Samoa will become self-sufficient in sugar requirements, which last year zost £108,919.

“All that is needed now is the wider cultivation of better varieties of cane,” said Mr. van der Goes, who svas expecting cane for propagation from Fiji and USA in May.

WHILE prospects look bright for sugar, the reverse is true for the banana industry. According to Fruit Distributors’ managing director, Ross Walker, in Apia in early May, “future prospects look extremely grim.”

Even the Agriculture Department, which has so often in the past, and at a meeting with Ross Walker earlier this year, claimed that supplies were plentiful, has expressed concern at the situation.

Acting Director T. Cunliffe has ordered a full-scale investigation into shortages which have plagued ship ments to New Zealand for the past three months. Both the Prime Min ister and Minister of Agriculture Laufili have assured Fruit Distributors, the company which handles supplies in NZ, that every effort will be made to maintain supplies.

Main cause of the present shortage is said to have arisen from the fact that many planters gave up banana growing in disgust when they could not get increased quotas for their surplus fruit.

“With growing difficulties of disease control, I foresee the trend away from a very large number of growers with small plantations towards a smaller number of growers running larger and more efficient plantations,” said Ross Walker.

Most people agree with him. Seven thousand growers shipping an aver-

ge of 2i cases per ship is an im •ossible number of growers to con rol adequately.

JJAMOA was inhabited at least J 2,000 years ago and some of the nhabitants used pottery they made hemselves.

These new facts came out at a ecture given by Auckland University ’rofessor Roger Green at the Nelson Memorial Public Library and at ended by over 100 Apia residents ;arly in May.

Professor Green dug up the pottery tom mounds at Vailele. The frag nents of large, flat-rimmed bowls vere made of local materials and heir age was determined by carbon iating charcoal found in the same ayer.

Furthermore, a newly investigated fort behind the village of Luatuanuu shows so many similarities to the fortifications of NZ Maoris that the evidence points to a “direct connec tion” between the two, said the Pro fessor.

He has been supervising archae ological studies in Samoa for the past five months.

FOLLOWING in the vice-regal steps of his grandfather and father, the Governor-General of New Zealand, Brigadier Sir Bernard Fergusson, GCMG, DSO, OBE, en route to the Tokelau Islands and re turn, visited Samoa as a guest of the Samoan Government over the week end, May 9-10.

The vice-regal party stayed with Head of State Malietoa at Vailima, Robert Louis Stevenson’s old home, where a reception for 400 was held.

Under prodding from the police, householders spent a lot of time cut ting grass and cleaning up their road frontages to make the environs of Apia more spick and span than they had been for a long time.