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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 5 (August 1, 1936)

The Liberation of the Samoans

The Liberation of the Samoans.

Had Mr. Savage and his colleagues done nothing else since their accession to office but attend to the necessary and pressing reforms in the mandated territory of Samoa, I consider they would have justified their positions in the Cabinet room. The daily telegrams from Apia have told us how joyfully the people received the news of the lifting of the atrocious sentence of exile on their beloved Taisi, and the lifting also of the various oppressive and coercive laws and regulations imposed on them because they had dared to press for their ordinary human rights. Mr. Savage held strong views on the subject of those extraordinary dictatorial measures directed against a peaceful patient people, who were treated as rebels and sedition-makers in their own country, and deprived of the right to travel about the islands, or even from village to village, without a police permit. That the Samoans continued to behave with such patience and forbearance towards the New Zealand administration and the little official tyrants who treated them as so many mere “natives,” with an uncomplimentary adjective, was a perpetual marvel to those who, like myself, had seen them in armed action in the lively days of old Samoa. Continually they were exhorted by their wise chiefs to remain patient; some day a liberator would arise. One of the last things Sir Maui Pomare said to me, in the sad final days of his life here before he was carried on board the steamer for California was: “Poor Samoa! Will she ever be free? Yes, but I won't see it!….” Pomare was not of the Labour Party but its opponent; yet I believe had he been alive today he would have counted his place well lost so that Samoa regained its rightful liberty—which after all is only the ordinary human rights we New Zealanders ourselves enjoy. He would have blessed M. J. Savage for his practical sympathy shown in the revocation of the hated ordinances and regulations. The Hon. F. Langstone was hailed as a deliverer, dispensing the “dew of heaven”; the warm-hearted people, in their relief, likened the tactful Minister to Tangaroa the god come to their help.

All this must indeed be gratifying to Mr. Savage and Mr. Langstone, and to all their colleagues, who have restored to a splendid and loveable race their ancient rights. A race of poets and orators and warriors, a race of culture and beauty, they are a finer people than the Europeans who have dictated what they shall do and say, and even wear. The race has suffered so much from white man's arrogance and interference that it is a wonder how it has continued to preserve so much of its charm and simplicity of character and life. Now that arrogant dictatorship has been demolished by a new regime in New Zealand, we may hope that the way is opening for the ultimate self-government of the islands under the benevolent and non-interfering protection of New Zealand.