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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 25, No. 6. 1962.

Blunders

Blunders

The 1920's had been a critical period. This was the first decade of New Zealand administration. Richardson, the first governor, had been a strict disciplinarian. This was met with opposition. The Samoans took a more casual view of life, continued Tamasese, and objected to regimentation.

A major shortcoming was the lack of trained persons to rule the colony. The men who did run the island never had their finger on the nation's pulse.

One of a whole series of blunders was the sending of a ship to Samoa without a medical certificate. The ship sailed from Auckland without inspection. The epidemic that the ship brought, killed 8,500 Samoans.

The plantations while run by the Germans were a model of efficiency and were admired by the people for this. New Zealand management was, by comparison, completely inefficient and ran to a financial loss. Once again the Samoan assessment of New Zealand fell.

Richardson's bungling had one good effect, in Tamasese's eye. Whereas the Samoans had been grouped in clans, now they were awakened to a consciousness of Samoa as a unified nation. The speaker approximated that 95% of Samoans were behind the Mau nationalist movement.

Throughout New Zealand's ad-ministration. the Samoans themselves were the initiators of progress. Added to this was the fact that New Zealand only acted when prompted by the United Nations.

—R.J.B.