Navigating New Zealand colonialism: “more interested in playing cricket than in Samoan politics”

Sacks, Benjamin

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-27268-5_8

Navigating New Zealand colonialism: “more interested in playing cricket than in Samoan politics”

Benjamin Sacks⁹

Chapter
First Online: 11 October 2019

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Sport and Politics ((PASSP))

Abstract

This chapter examines Samoans’ use of the game under New Zealand colonial rule. Under military occupation, Samoans revived kirikiti in the districts as part of broader efforts to reclaim activities restricted under German rule. In Apia, Samoans regularly played ‘English’ cricket to establish relationships with officials, while kirikiti served to entertain soldiers and ‘perform’ loyalty. Under civilian rule, Samoans gradually developed different strategies to navigate New Zealand colonialism—including on the cricket pitch. While controlling and policing kirikiti remained a fruitful means of ‘performing’ accommodation, adherents of the Mau protest movement used the game as a form of anti-colonial protest. These divergent responses demonstrate the game’s value to Samoans in the face of new and increasingly invasive—if not necessarily pervasive—forms of colonial power.

After lemonade time, the Apia players girded up their lavalavas and set out for scalps. Armed with their fearsome clubs they dealt out severe punishment to the Battery bowling, even the great ‘Billy’ being treated with disrespect. The stout gentleman in the long short trousers (or were they short long ones) was particularly aggressive, and he easily topped the score.

‘Cricket’, The Pull-Thro’, 14 October 1914, p. 9

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Notes

1.
See ‘The Advance Force’, Dominion, 10 September 1914, p. 6.
2.
‘Cricket’, The Pull-Thro’, 14 October 1914, p. 9.
3.
‘Local and General News’, Samoa Times, 2 October 1915, p. 3.
4.
‘Tate to Minister of External Affairs’ [Memorandum], 14 February 1922, Ex. 82/2, IT (Department of Island Territories) 1 449: Firms, 1919–1939, National Archives of New Zealand (NANZ), Wellington.
5.
Hermann Hiery, The Neglected War: The German South Pacific and the Influence of World War I (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995), p. 179.
6.
Ibid., p. 157.
7.
Hermann Hiery, ‘West Samoans between Germany and New Zealand 1914–1921’, War & Society 10:1 (1992), p. 60.
8.
Malama Meleisea, The Making of Modern Samoa: Traditional Authority and Colonial Administration in the History of Western Samoa (Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific, 1987), p. 110.
9.
Ibid., p. 110; see also endnote #8, p. 244.
10.
For an example of a successful prosecution, see ‘Law Reports’, Samoa Times, 29 September 1917, p. 4. The offenders were each fined ten shillings and the police confiscated the cards and stakes.
11.
E. Demandt diary, 24 September and 4 November 1914, Bundesarchiv Koblenz, cited in Hiery, ‘West Samoans Between Germany and New Zealand’, pp. 60–61.
12.
Meleisea, The Making of Modern Samoa, p. 110.
13.
Native Court of Appeal’, Samoa Times, 15 May 1915, p. 4.
14.
See, for example, ‘At Samoa’, Marlborough Express, 14 November 1914, p. 2; ‘Outdoor Sports and Pastimes’, Free Lance, 14 November 1914, p. 20.
15.
See ‘Cricket’, Samoanische Zeitung, 12 December 1914, p. 4; ‘Cricket’, Samoanische Zeitung, 19 December 1914, p. 4.
16.
‘Cricket’, Samoanische Zeitung, 28 November 1914, p. 8.
17.
‘Local and General News’, Samoa Times, 4 March 1916, p. 3.
18.
‘In Samoa’, Evening Post, 17 November 1914, p. 4. See also Untitled article, Samoanische Zeitung, 7 November 1914, p. 7.
19.
Meleisea, The Making of Modern Samoa, p. 104.
20.
‘Cricket’, The Pull-Thro’, 5 December 1914, p. 7.
21.
‘Warship Ashore’, New Zealand Herald, 9 December 1914, p. 8.
22.
‘Local and General News’, Samoa Times, 3 July 1915, p. 3.
23.
Meleisea, The Making of Modern Samoa, p. 105.
24.
Penelope Schoeffel, ‘Daughters of Sina: A Study of Gender, Status and Power in Western Samoa’ (PhD diss., Australian National University, 1979), p. 449.
25.
‘Local and General News’, Samoa Times, 3 July 1915, p. 3.
26.
‘Cricket’, Samoa Times, 14 August 1915, p. 3.
27.
J.L. Arcus to Controller and Auditor General, 25 August 1919, p. 6, IT 82/8, NANZ.
28.
Mary Boyd, ‘Coping with Samoan Resistance after the 1918 Influenza Epidemic: Colonel Tate’s Problems and Perplexities’, Journal of Pacific History 15:3 (1980), pp. 155–174.
29.
Peter Hempenstall and Noel Rutherford, Protest and Dissent in the Colonial Pacific (Suva: Institute of the South Pacific, University of the South Pacific, 1984), p. 32.
30.
Robert Ward Tate, ‘The Toeaina Club’, MS-Papers-0264-57: Drafts of projected book, ca 1930s, Tate, Robert Ward, 1864–1933: Papers, Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL), Wellington.
31.
Meleisea, The Making of Modern Samoa, p. 117.
32.
James W. Davidson, Samoa mo Samoa (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1967), p. 110.
33.
Mary Boyd, ‘The Military Administration of Samoa’, New Zealand Journal of History 2:2 (1968), p. 162.
34.
Meleisea, The Making of Modern Samoa, p. 117.
35.
Robert Logan, Administration of Samoa—Report by Colonel Logan, July 1919, EX 1/10, IT1 25, NANZ.
36.
Ibid.
37.
Boyd, ‘Coping with Samoan Resistance’, p. 165.
38.
‘The Samoa Toeaina Club’s Cricket Festival’, Samoa Times, 31 July 1915, p. 3.
39.
White women were considered to be especially susceptible to Samoa’s tropical climate—and the menace of indigenous men—and discouraged from overexerting themselves. See Paul Shankman, ‘Interethnic unions and the regulation of sex in colonial Samoa, 1830–1945’, Journal of the Polynesian Society 110:2 (2001), 119–147, especially p. 134; Damon Salesa, ‘New Zealand’s Pacific’, in Giselle Byrnes (ed.), The new Oxford history of New Zealand (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 158–159.
40.
‘Local and General News’, Samoa Times, 31 July 1915, p. 3.
41.
‘Local and General News’, Samoa Times, 9 October 1915, p. 4.
42.
‘Local and General News’, Samoa Times, 18 September 1915, p. 3.
43.
‘Toeaina Club of Samoa’, Samoa Times, 18 May 1918, p. 4.
44.
See Margery Perham, Pacific Prelude: a Journey to Samoa and Australasia (London: Peter Owen, 1988), originally published 1929, p. 104; Mary Boyd, ‘Racial Attitudes of New Zealand Officials in Western Samoa’, New Zealand Journal of History 21:1 (1987), p. 142; Mary Boyd, ‘The Record in Western Samoa to 1945’ in Angus Ross (ed.), New Zealand’s record in the Pacific Islands in the twentieth century (Auckland: Longman Paul for the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1969), especially pp. 144, 149, 158–159.
45.
See Michael J. Field, Mau: Samoa’s Struggle Against New Zealand Oppression (Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1984), pp. 62–65.
46.
Ibid., pp. 61–72, especially pp. 62–63.
47.
Two of Western Samoa’s four paramount titleholders—Malietoa Tanumafili and Mata’afa Salanoa—did not join the Mau, and indeed Malietoa actively supported the Administration due to fear of the chaos that might result if the Mau were successful. In addition, the Malietoa lineage had been associated and broadly aligned with ‘British’ influence in Samoa since before partition. The Mau, conversely, drew its strongest support from followers of Tupua Tamasese and Tuimalealiifano Si’u and drew on Ta’isi Nelson’s extensive network of trading stores to raise money and distribute propaganda. Even so, most of the influential families associated with Malietoa supported the Mau cause, and the Mau party in Mata’afa’s district of Aleipata contained the greater part of his people. For further discussion of these divisions and their manifestation in the Mau movement, see Meleisea, The Making of Modern Samoa, pp. 142–145; Hempenstall and Rutherford, Protest and Dissent, pp. 39–40.
48.
The Mau has been the subject of extensive historical analysis and inquiry, and a full account of its origins, aims and methods is far beyond the purview of this book. For an overview of the movement, see, for example, Davidson, Samoa mo Samoa, pp. 114–160; Hempenstall and Rutherford, Protest and Dissent, pp. 34–43; Field, Mau, 1984; Meleisea, The Making of Modern Samoa, pp. 139–151. For a contrary view, see I.C. Campbell, ‘Resistance and colonial government’, Journal of Pacific History 40:1 (2005), pp. 45–69.
49.
Hempenstall and Rutherford, Protest and Dissent, pp. 34–43; Meleisea, The Making of Modern Samoa, pp. 139–151.
50.
Boyd, ‘Racial Attitudes of New Zealand Officials’, p. 142.
51.
George Westbrook, ‘Comradeship in Samoa’, MSS Papers 61, Folder 63, ATL, cited in Boyd, ‘Racial Attitudes of New Zealand Officials’, p. 145. For Tate’s less discriminatory approach, see p. 150.
52.
‘Samoans at Sport’, Evening Post, 19 August 1936, p. 16.
53.
‘Life in Samoa’, New Zealand Herald, 11 February 1924, p. 8.
54.
‘Rugby in Apia’, Auckland Star, 20 March 1928, p. 15; ‘Samoans at Sport’, Evening Post, 19 August 1936, p. 16. For rugby coverage in the local press, see, for example, ‘Football’, Samoa Times, 26 March 1926.
55.
‘Navy Vanquished’, Auckland Star, 2 April 1928, p. 10.
56.
‘Sport at Apia’, Auckland Star, 24 April 1933, p. 9.
57.
Safua Akeli, ‘Reconfiguring Cricket Culture in Colonial Samoa’, in Annabel Cooper, Lachy Paterson and Angela Wanhalla (eds.), The Lives of Colonial Objects (Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2015), p. 283; LMS Samoan District Administrative Records (Folders 1–3), Reel 1—1928, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau (PMB) 1278: LMS Samoan District Administrative Records, 1851–1973, Australian National University (ANU) [microfilm].
58.
‘Life in Samoa’, New Zealand Herald, 11 February 1924, p. 8.
59.
“A Visitor”, ‘Savai’i to the Fore’, Samoa Times, 26 March 1926.
60.
‘In the Field of Sport’, Samoa Herald, 3 October 1930; ‘In the Field of Sport’, Samoa Herald, 10 October 1930.
61.
See, for example, ‘Cricket’, Samoa Herald, 9 December 1932, p. 2.
62.
Robert Ward Tate, Diary—14 May 1919, MS-Papers-0264-43: Diary (Mar–May 1919), Tate, Robert Ward, 1864–1933: Papers, ATL.
63.
Robert Ward Tate, Diary—17 May 1919, MS-Papers-0264-44: Diary (Apr–Jul 1919), ATL.
64.
Ibid.
65.
Tate diary, 24 May 1919, MS-Papers-0264-44: Diary (Apr–Jul 1919), ATL.
66.
Robert Logan, ‘Foreword’ to Stephen John Smith, The Samoa (N.Z.) Expeditionary Force, 1914–1915 (Wellington: Ferguson & Osborn, 1924), p. 10; Akeli, ‘Reconfiguring Cricket Culture’, pp. 281–285.
67.
Tate to External Affairs, 27 January 1923, MS-Papers-0264-34: Reports and memoranda (1922–1923), Tate, Robert Ward, 1864–1933: Papers, ATL.
68.
Ibid.
69.
Stewart Firth, ‘Colonial Administration and the Invention of the Native’ in Donald Denoon, Malama Meleisea, Stewart Firth, Jocelyn Linnekin and Karen Nero (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Pacific Islanders (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 258.
70.
Nicholas Hoare, ‘Harry Holland’s “Samoan Complex”’, Journal of Pacific History 49:2 (2014), p. 163.
71.
New Zealand Ministry of External Affairs, Mandated Territory of Western Samoa (sixth report of the Government of New Zealand on the administration of, for the year ended the 21st March, 1926), report prepared for the League of Nations General Assembly (Wellington: Government Publisher, 1926), p. 9.
72.
Paul Shankman, ‘Equatorial Acquiescence: Village Council and Pulenu’u in Western Samoa’, in William L. Rodman and Dorothy Ayers Counts (eds.), Middlemen and Brokers in Oceania (Lanham: University Press of America, 1983), p. 221.
73.
Traditionally, a village council comprising the matai from each extended family regulated conduct within the village. As Shankman points out, the pulenu’u thus frequently faced resistance from these former powerholders who resented outside interference in their affairs. See Shankman, ‘Equatorial Acquiescence’, pp. 220–222.
74.
Ibid., p. 222.
75.
Richardson to Nosworthy, 17 December 1926, IT 1/33/1, cited in Mary Boyd, ‘The Record in Western Samoa to 1945’, p. 149.
76.
Toeolesulusulu Damon Salesa, ‘Half-castes between the Wars: Colonial Categories in New Zealand and Samoa’, New Zealand Journal of History 34:1 (2000), p. 101.
77.
Hempenstall and Rutherford, Protest and Dissent, pp. 39–40.
78.
Shankman, ‘Equatorial Acquiescence’, p. 222.
79.
Jocelyn Linnekin, ‘Fine mats and money: contending exchange paradigms in colonial Samoa’, Anthropological Quarterly 64:1 (1991), p. 11.
80.
‘Samoans at Play’, New Zealand Herald, 14 March 1930, p. 10.
81.
‘Nelson’s Exile’, Auckland Star, 23 March 1934, p. 5.
82.
‘Mau in Samoa’, Auckland Star, 21 April 1934, p. 7.
83.
‘Aiding and Abetting’, Samoa Herald, 17 April 1930.
84.
New Zealand Ministry of External Affairs, Mandated territory of Western Samoa (report of visit by W. Nosworthy, Minister of External Affairs to), report prepared for the League of Nations General Assembly (Wellington: Government Publisher, 1927), p. 22.
85.
Samoa Times, cited in ‘Playing With Fire’, Auckland Star, 7 July 1927, p. 15.
86.
New Zealand Ministry of External Affairs, Report of visit by W. Nosworthy, pp. 22–23.
87.
‘On the Trail of Tamasese’, New Zealand Truth, 29 March 1928, p. 6.
88.
‘Our Samoan Letter’, Auckland Star, 5 July 1928.
89.
‘Concessions to Mau’, New Zealand Herald, 7 March 1928, p. 11.
90.
Samoan Petition of 9 March 1928, League of Nations Archives, Geneva (LNA), Box R2322, 6A/2967/709, cited in Susan Pedersen, ‘Samoa on the World Stage: Petitions and Peoples before the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 40:2 (2012), p. 232.
91.
Marc T. Greene, ‘Samoa To-day’, Auckland Star, 7 September 1933, p. 11.
92.
According to Lisa MacQuoid, the Women’s Mau was “led by Ala Tamasese (widow of High Chief Tamasese Lealofi III), Rosabel Nelson (wife of Ta’isi O.F. Nelson and daughter of H.J. Moors, who had been a prominent European businessman), Paisami Tuimalealiifano (wife of Chief Tuimalealiifano) and Faamusami Faumuina (wife of High Chief Faumuina Fiame and daughter of Malietoa Laupepa)”, who she collectively terms the “four leading ladies of Samoa”. See Lisa P. MacQuoid, ‘The Women’s Mau: Female Peace Warriors in Western Samoa’ (MA diss., University of Hawai’i at Moana, 1995), pp. 26–27.
93.
‘Aiding and Abetting’, Samoa Herald, 17 April 1930.
94.
‘Aiding and Abetting’, Samoa Herald, 24 April 1930.
95.
‘Women’s Processions’, Auckland Star, 14 May 1930, p. 10.
96.
Felix M. Keesing, Modern Samoa: its government and changing life (London: Allen & Unwin, 1934), p. 156; Fiji Times and Herald, 5 December 1930, cited in MacQuoid, ‘The Women’s Mau’, p. 36.
97.
‘Boat-Day Parades’, Auckland Star, 27 May 1930, p. 17.
98.
‘Mau Women Hold Monster Meeting’, Pacific Islands Monthly, 23 April 1932, cited in MacQuoid, ‘The Women’s Mau’, pp. 36–37.
99.
‘Banishment Ends’, New Zealand Herald, 18 May 1933, p. 9.
100.
Hoare, ‘Harry Holland’s “Samoan Complex”’, pp. 164–165.
101.
‘The Duke’s Visit’, Samoa Herald, 1 February 1935.
102.
‘The Duke’s Visit’, Samoa Herald, 30 November 1934.
103.
‘The Duke’s Visit’; ‘Local and General’; ‘The Royal Envoy’, Samoa Herald, 1 February 1935.
104.
‘Visit of His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester’; ‘At Mulinu’u’, Souvenir Supplement to the Samoa Herald, 8 February 1935.
105.
See ‘Samoans Like Duke But Hate New Zealand’s Rule’, News, 9 February 1935, p. 5; ‘Mau Chiefs Aloof From Duke’, Courier Mail, 9 February 1935, p. 14.
106.
This discussion draws on Malcolm MacLean’s analysis of the 1981 Springbok rugby tour to New Zealand, which precipitated widespread public protest—including a pitch invasion that prevented a match taking place at Hamilton and the famous flour-bombing of another match at Auckland’s Eden Park. For MacLean, the opposition campaign was potent precisely because of rugby’s “metonymical role in Aotearoa/New Zealand”, where it variously serves as a site of national celebration, a continuation of the frontier ethos and an embodiment of Pakeha [white] masculine identity. Rugby was hence an effective means of protesting dominant ideas of the nation, masculinity and racial equality. Malcolm MacLean, ‘Football as Social Critique: Protest Movements, Rugby and History in Aotearoa, New Zealand’, International Journal of the History of Sport 17:2 (2000), pp. 256–257.
107.
‘Duke in Samoa’, Auckland Star, 25 February 1935, p. 9.
108.
See ‘Duke Visits Samoa’, Barrier Miner, 11 February 1935, p. 3; ‘Samoans Like Duke But Hate New Zealand’s Rule’, News, 9 February 1935, p. 5.

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Sacks, B. (2019). Navigating New Zealand colonialism: “more interested in playing cricket than in Samoan politics”. In: Cricket, Kirikiti and Imperialism in Samoa, 1879–1939. Palgrave Studies in Sport and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27268-5_8

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27268-5_8
Published: 11 October 2019
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