VII

In January 1925, my services having, after two months' notice and for "the reason that they were no longer required," been dispensed with, I started trading for a merchant, Mr. Jensen, at Falelima, in the district where I had recently been an official. It was during this year, I suppose, that the Faipule system, as now constituted, may be considered to have come to its full flower. But before proceeding to that I should record that towards the end of 1924 a party of Faipules under the tutelage of Mr. Griffin, the Secretary of Native Affairs, paid a visit to New Zealand. Sir Maui Pomare, a member of the New Zealand Cabinet, who then made their acquaintance, pronounced the Faipules in 1927 "an absolutely worthless body." Another party of Faipules, either in 1924 or 1925, visited Tonga.

In the Samoa Report for the year ending March 31, 1925, after telling of the visit of the Faipules to New Zealand, the Administrator observes with apparent satisfaction: "From the reports which each rendered to me on his return, their tour to New Zealand has resulted in—less respect for the communal system, particularly as regards land-development." This, I have little doubt, was precisely what he had required.