A.—4.

On Ist April the 1 Hon. Tamasese, M.L.C., as representing one of the leading family lines of Samoa, was appointed Fautua (Adviser to the Administrator), in succession to the late High Chief Tuimalealiifano. The Hon. Malietoa, 0.8. E.( l ), holds the other similar position. The Acting Administrator confers regularly with the two Fautua at monthly meetings as well as on other official occasions. In September the Hon. Tamasese relinquished his seat in the Legislative Council. For this vacancy, and also for the seat which had remained vacant since the nomination of the Hon. 0. F. Nelson( 2 ), the Fono of Faipule, who were then in session, recommended the appointment of two executive members of the Mau organization, Asiata Mu'ese and Fa'alava'au Galu. They were duly appointed, and so completed the Samoan seats in the Council. The triennial election for European members was held on the 26th November, 1938. Six Europeans offered themselves for election, the Hon. 0. F. Nelson and the Hon. C. M. Dawson being returned. On account of the extension of the franchise to all adult Europeans, the electoral roll rose from 134 in 1935 to 705 in 1938, and considerable public interest was evinced in the election. The fall in market prices for copra and cocoa forecast in last year's report unfortunately occurred, with the result that the Administration's finances were curtailed. In January, 1939, extraordinary rainfall with accompanying floods and high seas caused extensive damage to road communications, hydro-electric plant, and waterworks, as well as to Government and private plantations, the cocoa crop being completely ruined, with no prospect of cropping for another six months. Several steel and concrete bridges were swept away, and numerous land-slides and washouts occurred throughout the Group. The damage to public services and plantations is estimated at £40,000, and as current revenues are not sufficient to meet the restoration of transport communications it will be necessary to use reserve funds to meet the extra expenditure. The loss through storm damage to the cocoa planters, coupled with the continued low prices obtaining for the past fifteen months, will necessitate a continuation of the relief measures granted these planters last year in the way of remission of rent by the New Zealand Reparation Estates as lessors and interest charges by the New Zealand Reparation Estates and mercantile firms. Native Affairs. The Fono of Faipule was in session from 13th September until 19th October, the Acting Administrator attending from time to time as requisite. During this Fono conclusions were reached which resulted in the completion of Samoan representation in the Legislative Council, and of other appointments to which reference appears below, while perhaps an historic occasion was the spontaneous offer by the Faipule on 29th September, during the European crisis, of a force of nine thousand Samoans for the defence of Samoa. The Fono reported its concurrence in the re-establishment of further classes of Native officials to a number of fourteen Fa'amasino (or District Native Judges) and fourteen Pule Fa'atoaga (Native Plantation Inspectors), accepting temporarily the view of the New Zealand Government that these numbers are sufficient at present, but stating " the Samoans do not give up hope that there will be ultimately thirty-nine of each " (or one for each Faipule district). These twenty-eight new officials, appointed on the Bth December, were chosen by the voice of district meetings, or in the absence of unanimity were as recommended by the district repi esentatives, the Faipule, and are in all cases chiefs or orators of standing. The actual appointments of the Fa'amasino were made by the Acting Administrator, who found no occasion to dissent from any of the nominations submitted to him. The jurisdiction of the Native Judges is described in Chapter X, " Judicial Organization." The Pulefa'atoaga are Inspectors of Native lands and plantations, with duties to be performed partly by way of complaint laid by them before the Fa'amasino in the event of a breach of the laws regarding cleanliness or sanitation within the village residential areas, and partly by advice and instruction as regards cultivation and care of plantations. The Mandatory Government and the local Administration have noted the desire of the Permanent Mandates Commission^ 3 ) for more detailed information on the relations between the official and unofficial village heads, " who appear to have a parallel authority." This conclusion is hardly a correct one. Obedience to the general law of the Territory proceeds satisfactorily. Law is administered by the Fa'amasino and other Courts, but it is not part of the system that the village officials —i.e., the Pulenu'u—should necessarily be village heads or leaders of the village life by any right of law or of the Government appointments that they hold. The chiefs and orators of each village, acting as a group, direct communal village activities of a nature not compulsory by law, such as village work on utilities and health measures, the planting of a sufficiency of food crops, inquiry into breaches of the social code, or the reception of visitors. In these councils the official is expected to take part in his own personal right, not claiming priority or asserting his Government office except in the rare event of the matter under discussion being in conflict with the law. There is thus a considerable measure of village self-government in the ordering of those activities which rest not on law but on social custom. Such is the ext; nt to which dualism exists in this matter. It is based on a characteristic of Samoan thought in which completeness rests on a juxtaposition of pairs, either mutually supporting or contending, the motivating factor being that every one should be recognized. Evidence of this exists in the contemporaneous functioning of chiefs and orators, reciprocity in kinship and ceremonial relations, and other groupings in pairs throughout the socio-political system. Village government thus has a natural background for falling into two categories —the operation of law emanating from " Government," and the direction of village social life by its chiefs and orators, referred to as the " Puletua."

(') Since deceased. ( 2 ) See report for 1937-38, page 3. ( 3 ) See minutes of thirty-iifth session of Permanent Mandates Commission, page 165.

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