V

By the Samoa Amendment Act of 1923, the New Zealand Parliament had laid down that the Administrator might appoint, from time to time, Faipules, or a Fono, in the persons of Samoans, who could constitute a council of advisers to him, and over whom he was to preside. It was stipulated that no native should be appointed as a Faipule who was not qua page 165in accordance with existing Samoan usage and custom to occupy the position. These Faipules might consider matters of welfare of their own initiative or as submitted to them by the Administrator, express opinions, and make recommendations. Decisions of the Fono of Faipules could be given legislative effect to either by submission to and adoption by the Legislative Council at Apia, in the form of an Ordinance; or, if affecting only native interests, by being submitted to the Minister of External Affairs in New Zealand, for embodying, if approved, in an Order-in-Council.

There had for long been a Fono of Faipules; indeed its beginning is lost. But there was one under Steinberger in 1874, when European domination was first established in Samoa. There was one under the German regime. To them Dr. Solf is remembered to have said that he wished them to attend their Fonos attired in their tappa cloths and hung with their ulas of scented flowers, for so he could admire them; while dressed in imitation of white men they looked like apes; and with this dictum they are said to have been much pleased. All but four of that Faipule Fono, which numbered nearly thirty, died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. In 1919 and 1920 had been appointed a great number of Faipules by the Administrator on the advice of the Secretary of Native Affairs. But this business, in 1923, of giving them statutory recognition was, so far as I can see, mere eyewash, and affected their position hardly at all. Their functions, as Colonel Tate the retired Administrator said, in an interview with an Auckland newspaper, had been purely formal; and so—as he did not say—their legitimate functions, to all practical purposes, remained.

Under the Samoa Amendment Act, provisions also were made for the Europeans; and it was decreed that the Legislative Council—of which the Administrator was President—should consist of not more than six "official" members of the public service; and "unofficial" members, not more in number than the official ones, who might either be elected or nominated. Three unofficial members subsequently were elected. They were George Westbrook, O. F. Nelson, and Williams the tinsmith, who henceforth were known as the "The Hon." The nominated official members, however, numbered six.

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When this Bill was introduced to the New Zealand Parliament the Hon. J. Parr,¹ Minister for Education in the New Zealand Cabinet—who stated elsewhere that the measure provided for Samoa the beginning of autonomy—said:

"For the first time the principle of election to the Council is recognized…. The point I wish to stress is that we are trying the experiment of giving Samoa a partial local government. I should think that this is the first time in the history of any colony where, within three years after being taken over, elective powers such as these are given to the people; but the Administration is satisfied that the experiment is worth while."

Parr also held out a promise that two Samoans should later be elected to the Legislative Council. This, however, did not eventuate.

In the Samoa Report of 1922 it is stated that among a certain section of the Samoans "there is a desire for complete self-government"; and the 1923 Report records that "the citizens are most anxious to be granted direct representation on the Legislative Council"; so these amendments to the Act, it will be seen, did not come about without some measure of pressure from the people.