A Century of Civilisation.

Education.

The education and civilisation of the Samoans dates back a century ago when, about 1828, the activities of the Methodist Mission and the London Missionary Society first began. Since then the education of the Samoans has been more productive and progressive than among any other Pacific race. In an address to the Parliamentary Party from New Zealand which visited Samoa in 1920, the Rev. W. E. Clarke stated that "Probably not 1 per cent, of the Samoans are unable to read and write," and all children attending the schools reach at least the equivalent of the Fourth Standard in New Zealand, many, of course, attaining a much higher standard. So that in the matter of educational attainments the Samoans are much superior to many European nations which have far more than one per cent, of illiterates in their population.

So eagerly was the education offered by the early missionaries welcomed and sought by the Samoans, and so apt and receptive were they as pupils, page 4 that in the course of a very few years Samoan teachers were used by the missionaries to assist their work in other islands of the Pacific. Every village became eager to secure and support a trained teacher. Funds were subscribed freely, and in 1844 a training college for Native teachers was instituted at Malua, and from the early work of the London Missionary Society, Methodists, Marist Brothers and Sisters there I developed the splendid system of education which the Samoans enjoy to-day.

The higher branches of education, technical and agricultural training, have also been developed by voluntary effort, and for many years past the whole of the missionary work has been supported solely by the Samoan themselves. They have by voluntary effort raised an annual sum of from £10,000 to £12,000 for the maintenance of this system. The fund is now controlled by the Samoans themselves, and the Native trustees have shown a keen grasp of finance in its administration.

I have dwelt a little on this phase of Samoan evolution to show that a people of whom over 99 out of every 100 can read and write, and who van. unaided, collect and administer a revenue of some £10,000 per annum for educational and spiritual work, cannot be regarded by outsiders as a "backward" race, still dwelling in a gloom of pagan ignorance and savagery, and incapable of taking an active and intelligent interest in their own government and the financial affairs of their Territory.

The voluntary system of education described continued unaltered through the Tripartite Control, the German regime, and the Military Occupation by the New Zealand forces. It is only in the last year or two that the present Administration has sought to graft the old system on to new ideas of a State one. The credit for the existing system is due entirely to the voluntary efforts which established, fostered and perfected it, and not to those who now seek to remodel it on different lines, the real value of which to the rising generation of Samoans is viewed by many with misgiving and doubt, and the superiority of which has yet to be proved.