Western Samoan Ethos Essay

In the late 1950’s independence was beginning to look as though it was quickly approaching and New Zealand was now beginning to realise that there was a critical shortage of trained and experienced Samoan administrative personnel. New Zealand understood that in order to continue appearing to the outside world as a helping figure to the Samoans they needed to quickly train the Samoans in order to have hard proof that they were helping and not deceiving the world and more specifically the United Nations who gave them the job. To solve this in 1959 New Zealand set up a “crash programme” that accelerated the training for the Samoan public servants . There is no direct proof that this programme was a success or a failure but with Western Samoa

An issue that surfaced was one relating to the Matai or family heads. According to Samoan custom, the traditional spokesmen for them were the Matai, or family heads, who were elected by their respective families (aigas) and were removable by them. Samoans did not agree to accept universal suffrage, since they regarded the matai system as an essential feature of their way of life . New Zealand did not view this as being democratic especially for the European communities living in Western Samoa and so in 1957 the Constitutional convention recommended a restricted suffrage which aimed to apply universal suffrage to only the European communities. It is noted that New Zealand did not agree or want to accept this idea but because a majority of the Samoan population accepted this they went along with it. This shows that New Zealand kept its word to help Western Samoa gain self-government as they did not get in the way by airing their grievances with the ways the Samoans wished to run politics. However, this issue did not end in 1957 and re-surfaced in 1959 as there was a rise in opposition for the matai only suffrage. The Trusteeship concluded stating that they hoped the Samoan people would accept universal suffrage as being the best way forward and towards self-government.

There was no great upheaval in the political or administrative structures of the country showing Western Samoa’s smooth transition from Trusteeship to independence. The first Samoan Prime Minister, Hon. Fiame Mata’afa Mulunu’u II in 1960 wrote, “Ours should be one of the smoothest of transitions from trusteeship to independence. Helped by our adual assumption of political responsibility over the past fourteen years, and by our friendly co-operation with New Zealand, we should experience little strain or difficulty when the moment for independence comes." This shows very evidence that the Samoan people did appreciate that New Zealand helped even though it appears New Zealand may have appeared to do certain things that appeared wrong. New Zealand was successfully able to help Western Samoa achieve independence and therefore proving to be a successful teacher. With this independence it meant that Western Samoa was now able to enter into relations with whatever states they wished. To further prove the relationship between New Zealand and Western Samoa, seven months after independence the newly-elected government entered into a Treaty of friendship with New Zealand . This shows that the Samoan people without persuasion from New Zealand (as they are no longer involved in administration in Western Samoa) decided to stay linked to New Zealand showing that the two did have a bond and till