Brewing and coconuts

Invincible Strangers 32 Chapter 14.1

Logan had imposed prohibition on Sāmoans, but alcohol was still available for whites. An expansion was called for. The Methodist synod prayed Sāmoa’s prohibition would be enjoyed in New Zealand. American Sāmoa Governor Edwin Pollock said prohibition was good, adding the easiest way to get a drink was to go to Sydney’. In Āpia, the League of Nations mandate required that the ‘sale of spirituous liquors to natives’ be banned. Tate responded with total prohibition. White settlers (and ‘half-castes’ as various newspapers put it) protested the ‘high-handed action’. They complained too at the ‘powerful machinery of militarism’ still in place. Allen said prohibition came from the mandate, not the military. The only fair thing was to make it apply to everybody in Sāmoa, as it was in American Sāmoa. Nelson saw Tate and denounced prohibition. Major Richardson told Tate that he should have been consulted.