Tailspins & Tiki Gods:The Authorities

The Colonial Government

Governor: Frédéric Marie Jean Baptiste Chastenet de Géry [RL person.]

HQ: Colonial capital at Papeete.

The French method of colonial government is called "Direct Rule". There is no official acknowledgement of tribal life or mores. The state owns all land not privately owned. (The Kamekame shrewdly played this game, having scrambled to "buy" their own lands with trade-goods in the 1800s.)

There is also a Privy Council and a General Council… but they are not much concern locally.

Administrators:

The Police

The Gendarmes: As in all overseas territories, the Gendarmerie are here to enforce the law. They also act as game wardens, of a sort, and report to the Mayor. There is a brigade (the smallest police unit) in Port Cochere.

-Direct rule means that the territories are, in essence, France. There is no acknowledgement of tribal life or mores. The state owns all land not privately owned. (The Kamakama, learning this, scrambled to “buy their own land” with trade goods in the 1800s. Otherwise, there would be nothing in the way of ‘reserves’. The broad groups of colonial life are administrators, traders and missionaries.

-Military cantonment is part of the Colonial strategy. Every important town has a staff of nearly 500. Universal conscription is the law in the colonies, no less than in France itself. (Either turned to labor units, or troops).

The Gendarmes: As in all overseas territories, the Gendarmerie are here to enforce the law. They also act as game wardens of a sort, and report to the local mayor. There is a brigade (the smallest unit) in Porte Cochere. There is a small jail here, but actual magistrates are far off. So things tend to be “handled locally”. The penal colony in New Caledonia is where the worst offenders go.

Generally speaking, the Colony of Oceania has a French governor,