In 1922, during the administration of Colonel Tate, had been passed an Ordinance "to control certain Samoan customs"—which revived and went beyond a German Proclamation of 1901—and gave the Administrator power to banish from his village and district, without trial, any Samoan whose presence was "likely to be a danger to the peace, order, and good government thereof," and also the power, again without trial, to deprive any Samoan of the title by which he was known to his people. The purpose of the German Proclamation would appear to have been to take the former of these powers from the Samoans as inconsistent with a judicial system. I append the wording of the German Proclamation:

"Whereas many reports have reached me saying that some of the Samoan people have been banished and forced away from their own homes and villages. It is also said that such is the Samoan custom.

"I hereby make known to you all that such custom is a very bad one, and I have now decided that I cannot uphold such a bad custom. I do therefore declare that if anyone, whether he may be a chief or tulafale or a common person, whether he be a Government official or not, again take the law into his own hands and remove a person away from his own house and family he will be severely punished with imprisonment not less than six months.

"That is my word; everyone must obey it.

Colonel Logan in 1916 issued a proclamation with rather similar wording, and also stated that if a Matai considered and believed that the peace of his family might be broken or ruined by the wickedness of one of its members, he might make application to the Government for the removal or punishment of the wrongdoer, when the case would be tried before the Native Court either at Savaii or Apia.

The Samoan Offenders Ordinance of 1922 went beyond either of these proclamations, in that the power of banishment and also the right to take away a title was vested in the Administrator, in the event of his being "satisfied" that it was desirable. The second of these powers had never been claimed by any previous Administrator, and had been the exclusive privilege of those who had conferred the title or agreed to its accession. This Ordinance, incidentally, was given birth to with Mr. Griffin in the position of Secretary of Native Affairs.