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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

(i) The Co-Ordination of Policy in Departmental Districts

(i) The Co-Ordination of Policy in Departmental Districts

101. Government Departments all have their headquarters in Apia; but some part of the work of nearly all of them is carried out in the outer districts. Thus, for example, the Medical Department has S.M.P.s and nurses stationed at suitable points, and it maintains comprehensive medical, dental, and public health services for the people of all districts. The Education Department controls over a hundred schools, scattered through every district of Western Samoa. Or, to take further examples, the Radio Department maintains stations at a number of widely page 38 scattered points, and the Post Office provides facilities for the despatch and delivery of mails. With the development of the country, it is certain that these activities outside Apia will be on an increasing scale in future.

102. In order to organize their activities, Departments have to consider the country as a number of regions or districts. Thus, the Medical Department thinks in terms of “medical districts” and the Education Department in terms of “education districts.” These are the areas which are under the respective control of a senior Samoan medical practitioner and a Samoan School Inspector. In the case of most Departments, this division into districts is a matter which concerns the internal organization of the particular Department alone. It is not directly related to the problems of district and village government. But this is not true of all Departments. The system of government which has grown up in Samoa provides for a large amount of direct co-operation between certain Departments of the Central Government and the district and village authorities. For example, districts contribute to the cost of building hospitals and to the support of S.M.P.s and nurses. Villages provide school buildings and supply food for the teachers. In the case of the Department of Agriculture, much of its work in the districts is actually carried out by pulefa‘ato‘aga who are nominated by their districts. Some changes in the present system will no doubt be made in future; but, in essentials, it is likely to remain with us for a long time to come. Financial considerations alone would make it impossible for the Government to assume complete responsibility for services such as those provided by the Medical and Education Departments.

103. Where direct co-operation between Government Departments and the district and village authorities is required, the subject becomes one that is directly related to our inquiry. We have felt ourselves bound to ask both Government officers and the ali‘i and faipule how well they think the present arrangements for co-operation are working. Also, we have had to consider how our own recommendations generally might affect relations with Government Departments. We have found that there is one difficulty which affects relations between the districts and practically all Departments. It is that the districts which serve as the units of political activity in Samoa are, in most cases, smaller than those upon which the Departments have to base their work. This should not be regarded as a matter for surprise. The political district has come to have its present form as a result of many centuries of Samoan history. It is a unit of political organization which is deeply rooted in tradition and in the way of thinking of the people of Samoa. The medical or education district—the “departmental district,” to use a comprehensive phrase—has a quite different origin. It is not a political page 39 unit at all, and, in origin, it is modern. It is the unit for which departmental services can be most efficiently and most economically provided by one group of departmental officers. Its geographical limits are decided by matters such as the nature of communications and the area that a senior officer, such as a senior S.M.P. or a School Inspector, can effectively take charge of.

104. To take an example: Fa‘asaleleaga, Palauli, and Satupa‘itea are three separate political districts. In political matters they take, and are entitled to take, separate action. But for the purposes of medical work, Fa‘asaleleaga, Palauli (except Palauli West), and Satupa‘itea (except for the villages on the far side of Palauli West) form one medical district. They do so because it would not be possible on financial grounds to provide a separate medical organization for each district and because there is no reasonable ground for doing so. A good road runs through the whole of this “medical district” from Pu‘apu‘a to Tufu Gautavai. The whole district can be supervised by one senior S.M.P., and anyone in need of medical treatment can quickly get to any point in it by motor truck or bus. In the near future, we have been told, it is the intention of the Director of Health to station a mobile clinic in the district. This will reinforce the need to treat the district as one. A mobile clinic is a costly piece of equipment, and if it is to justify itself it must be kept constantly employed. Such full use is only possible if the clinic serves the three political districts.

105. This example typifies the situation as it exists in all parts of Samoa and as it affects a number of different Departments. From the point of view of achieving satisfactory co-operation, it means that it is necessary for the people of the whole or parts of several different political districts to meet together and work out a common plan for the development of departmental services. In the past, little has been done towards organizing such meetings; and there is, indeed, a common belief that great difficulty would be encountered in any efforts that were taken in this direction. The Commission does not share this point of view. It is convinced that, with a proper explanation of the purposes to be served, there is an opportunity of achieving real success. Provided care is taken to make it clear that no interference with the pule is involved, and proper thought is given to the manner in which meetings should be organized, there should be an opportunity for success similar to that which has already been achieved in the development of their district organizations by the churches.

106. In putting forward any proposals in regard to this subject, three considerations of primary importance must be kept constantly in mind. First, the functions of any joint meeting by the representatives of several districts must be most carefully limited to consideration of page 40 matters of administration. The meetings must not be concerned in any way with politics. If this limitation is fully maintained, the main difficulty in the way of co-operation between the people of several adjoining districts will have been overcome. Secondly, in organizing combined meetings of this kind, as much use should be made as possible of the traditional political grouping. Wherever possible, whole political districts should be brought into the same administrative area. Only where the state of communications makes it inevitable should parts of the same district be served by different branches of the departmental organization. The last point that it is necesary to keep in mind is that there must be full co-ordination of effort between the different Departments concerned.

107. In the light of this explanation, the Commission presents its own recommendations on this subject. The Commission considers that the work of Government Departments in the outer districts should be organized on the basis of a system of departmental districts, which should apply to all Departments alike. There should be seven of these departmental districts, three in Savai‘i and four in Upolu.

108. In Savai‘i the area which would be comprised by each of the three districts is clearly determined by the nature of the country. One departmental district would consist of Fa‘asaleleaga, Palauli, and Satupa‘itea, as explained earlier. That is, it would include all villages from Pu‘apu‘a to Tufu Gataivai. Another would consist of the political district of Gaga‘emauga and Gagaifomauga. The third would contain Vaisigano, Falealupo, Alataua-i-Sisifo, Salega, the villages of Vaipu‘a, Fogasavai‘i, and Sagone, and Palauli West. It would thus include all villages from Asau to Taga. In the first mentioned of the departmental districts a road already links all villages and thus puts them into easy communication with one another. In the other two suggested districts, most villages will be linked by road within a year or two, if present Government roading policy is adhered to. On the other hand, each of the three areas is likely to be without a road connection with the other two for some time to come, owing to the existence of the intervening lava fields.

109. In Upolu it is not so easy to decide on the arrangement of departmental districts. Roughly speaking, it can be said that the three major political divisions of Atua, Tuamasaga, and Aana run from north to south, whereas the lines of communication run from east to west. There are, in addition, several local difficulties, such as the lack of road connection between Lefaga and the neighbouring parts of Aana and between Falealili and the remainder of Atua. But the situation differs from that in Savai‘i. In Savai‘i the lava fields impose a barrier to rapid communication so complete that it obviously cannot be ignored. No page 41 one could reasonably suggest, for example, that a sick man in Sala‘ilua should be treated in the same hospital as the people of Palauli East. In Upolu the barriers to communication are by no means so complete. Although there is no road from Lefaga to Falelatai (and probably never will be), yet Lefaga is well connected with northern Aana by the Cross Island road. Similarly, though the Government does not intend at present to construct a road through Falealili to Lotofaga, yet, in this case, road-construction is quite possible, and the district itself talks of undertaking the work. Already, despite the absence of a road, the Medical Department has placed Lotofaga under the control of the Samoan medical practitioner in charge of Falealili Hospital. The only case in which geographical conditions more or less necessitate a division between departmental districts is in Tuamasaga.

110. In Tuamasaga the only road connection between the northern and southern halves of the district is by the Cross Island road, which passes through Aana. This necessitates a lengthy journey when travelling from one part of the district to the other. The position is not likely to be greatly changed in future. Because of this barrier to easy communication, there has always been a considerable degree of separation between the northern and southern parts of Tuamasaga in the past, and it seems best that they should be treated now as two separate departmental districts. This division also fits in well with several other requirements of efficient administration. Tuamasaga North is the most heavily populated region in Samoa, and it thus easily merits treatment as a separate departmental district. Also, it is more or less co-terminous with the area which can be most efficiently served by many Departments from their headquarters in Apia. The Medical Department, for example, treats the whole of Tuamasaga North (with the exception of about half a mile at the western end) as being within the district served by Apia Hospital. Only a very minor rearrangement would be needed in this case to conform with the suggestion put forward here.

111. It is possible in Upolu, as has been shown, to base departmental district organization fairly strictly upon the political districts, except that Tuamasaga would become two departmental districts and not one. In one or two instances, however, some degree of administrative inconvenience would be involved in doing so. The exact estimation of the importance of the various factors involved is a matter which should be carefully considered by those most directly concerned. The view of the Commission is that departmental districts should be based on the political districts as closely as possible. It therefore recommends that heads of Departments and representatives of the people of Upolu should meet and take as a starting point of discussion an arrangement of departmental districts on the following lines: (1) Atua and Va‘a-o-Fonoti; (2) Tuamasaga North and Le‘auva‘a; (3) Tuamasaga South and page 42 Salamumu; (4) Aana and Aiga-i-le-Tai. They could then consider whether any modification of this arrangement is necessary, either in relation to the general organization of departmental districts, or to the work of any particular Department. Such modifications might be either temporary ones, made necessary by the incompletion of a roading scheme, or permanent ones, which were the result of fundamental difficulties of communication.

112. The departmental district, we have written above, would serve as a unit of administration for all the Departments working in the different parts of Samoa. In each district, for example, the whole work of the Medical Department would be under the supervision of one senior S.M.P., and the Government schools would be under one Inspector. Similarly, for the Department of Agriculture, the two or three pulefa‘atoa‘aga in each departmental district would be under the supervision of a permanent officer of the Department. There would be a police officer in each district, and, as we shall be explaining in the next subsection of this report, we consider that the departmental district could also be a useful unit in connection with the development of the law-courts. The proposals, we would emphasize, would not involve very radical changes in many cases. They would require, rather, the tidyingup of a system which has been slowly growing up in each department separately over many years.

113. The greatest need for such a tidying-up, and for co-ordination of the practice of different Departments, lies in the fact that the responsibility for providing services is shared between the Central Government and the district and village authorities. The establishment of a uniform system of departmental districts would make such a sharing of responsibility easier. In each departmental district there should be established an advisory council composed of representatives of all the district (or village) authorities within it. Each authority should be entitled to send a number of representatives in proportion to its population. The meetings of the advisory councils should also be attended by the senior officer in the district of each Government Department— i.e., the senior S.M.P., the School Inspector, &c. From time to time they would, no doubt, also receive visits from heads of Departments.

114. The functions of these advisory councils would be, in accordance with their name, purely advisory. They would discuss the educational, medical, agricultural, and other needs of their part of the country, and submit recommendations to the Government and their own district and village authorities on the action to be taken. Members would, naturally, report such recommendations to the district or village which they represented. But, in addition, the secretary of the council should keep minutes of meetings and transmit copies of these regularly to district and village authorities, to heads of Government Departments concerned, and to the page 43 Secretary of the District and Village Government Board. At a suitable time each year, each advisory council should prepare a list of recommendations regarding work to be undertaken during the following year. This would then be forwarded in the normal way so that it could be considered by departmental heads and the Committees of the Legislative Assembly when the estimates were being drawn up. The responsibility for taking final decisions upon any recommendation and for carrying it out would, of course, rest with the Government and the district and village authorities.

115. The usefulness of these councils would depend, of course, upon the will of the Government and of the ali‘i and faipule to make them a success. On the part of the ali‘i and faipule, this would seem to depend largely upon their full realization that the councils did not in any way undermine the pule of the traditional authorities and that co-operation with neighbouring districts and villages offers the possibility of much improved services. On the part of the Government, there would be a considerable and continuing responsibility. First of all, the Commission would emphasize that the growth of co-operation is considerably dependent on the state of communications. For example, as soon as the road is open from Asau to Sala‘ilua, the people of all the villages in between are bound to develop a new community of interest. They will do all their shipping through Sala‘ilua or through one of the ports at the Vaisigano end of the district. It will be possible at last to abandon the dangerous landings along the coast in between. All parts of the area will be within an hour or two of all other parts by bus, truck, or ambulance. Co-operation, that is, will be possible, and it will be natural.

116. When that stage is reached, it should be the policy of the Government to give the greatest encouragement that it can to proposals for development of unified services within the departmental district. It is likely, for example, that requests will be made for the establishment of higher schools taking children to Standard 6 at central points in a district. Such proposals will be entitled to the most sympathetic consideration.

117. If development takes place along the lines that we have proposed, the organization of departmental districts will be, we are convinced, a step of great and of gradually growing importance in building up a really unified and successful form of government in Samoa.