OUR POSSESSION [N Si MOA. 



71 



PRESENT FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 



Our gover at has very wisely interfered as little 



as possible with native rule. The harbor, with a 

 strip of land belonging to it, is exclusively under the 

 control of the officer in command of the naval force 



Fig. 17. — Tamasese. Fine specimen of Samoan. 



stationed there. He is at the same time the comman- 

 dant of the island, to whom the chiefs can appeal in all 

 matters in which they find it necessary to obtain ad- 

 vice, or when they fail to adjust local difficulties in 

 their respective communities. The naval surgeons sta- 

 tioned at Pago Pago have in charge the sanitation of 



