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Government of Western Samoa Report of the Commission to Inquire into and Report upon the Organization of District and Village Government in Western Samoa

[section]

29. As was explained in our first report, the Commission is of opinion that it is necessary to provide an effective link between the Central Government and the authorities controlling district and village affairs. It is necessary to provide a means by which the requirements of modern administration and of the law can be explained to the ali‘i and faipule and by which the requirements of the ali‘i and faipule can be explained to the Government. It is necessary also to provide for the working-out in detail of the respective fields of activity of the Government and of the ali‘i and faipule and the most useful forms of co-operation between them.

30. In the opinion of the Commission, a task of this character cannot be satisfactorily entrusted to a Government Department. It requires the pooling of the political experience and judgment of a group of men of whom most, at least, must be in closer touch with the currents of political opinion in the country than a departmental head is able to be. It requires, too, the attitude of mind of men active in politics—constructive and willing to create something new—not the attitude which necessarily imposes itself on most public servants of absorption in the maintenance of an existing way of doing things. For such reasons, the Commission is convinced that these responsibilities should be placed in the hands of a District and Village Government Board.