Pages tagged with: samoa

When war broke out in Europe in August 1914, Britain asked New Zealand to seize German Samoa as a ‘great and urgent Imperial service’. Although the tiny German garrison offered no opposition, at the time it was regarded as a potentially risky action.

New Zealand was ill-equipped to cope with the Western Samoa mandate allocated by the League of Nations in 1920. The Mau movement's passive resistance culminated in the violence of ‘Black Saturday’, 28 December 1929, which left 11 Samoans and one New Zealand policeman dead.

Just over ninety years ago, in November 1918, New Zealand was in the grip of its worst-ever disease outbreak. A lethal influenza pandemic killed more than 8600 people in two months. No other event has claimed so many New Zealand lives in such a short time.

Samoans were not consulted when Britain, Germany and the United States agreed to partition their islands in December 1899

When war broke out in Europe in August 1914, Britain asked New Zealand to seize German Samoa as a 'great and urgent Imperial service'.

With hindsight, New Zealand's capture of German Samoa on 29 August 1914 was an easy affair. But at the time it was regarded as a potentially risky action with uncertain outcomes.

The League of Nations formally allocated New Zealand the Class C mandate of Western Samoa in December 1920. Samoan leaders were not consulted as other nations decided Samoa's future.

By 1926, anti-New Zealand feeling was strong throughout Samoa.

In January 1928 Mau policeman, dressed in a uniform of a purple lavalava with a white stripe, began enforcing a sā - ban - on European stores in Apia.

One New Zealand policeman and up to 11 Samoans, including Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, were killed in Apia on Black Saturday - 28 December 1929

On 4 June 2002 Prime Minister Helen Clark offered 'a formal apology to the people of Samoa for the injustices arising from New Zealand's administration of Samoa in its earlier years'.

Ceremony for the raising of the New Zealand flag at the Courthouse, Apia, Western Samoa. Photograph taken between 1935 and 1940

Cartoon showing relationship between NZ administration and Mau in Samoa in 1930

Six Mau supporters, five of whom are wearing the white stripe, pose in front of the camera

A series of images relating to the pursuit and arrest of Mau in January 1930

The lying in state of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, Samoa, 1929

Pall bearers and Mau police carrying the coffin of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III

The leaders of the women's Mau; Mrs Tuimaliifano, Mrs Tamasese, Mrs Nelson, Mrs Faumuina, c1930

Group photograph of leaders and committee of the Women's Mau, 1930

Members of the first Legislative Council of Western Samoa c 1921

Mau parade moving west along Beach Road, Apia, Samoa

Fale o Leoleo, Police station, Apia c 1930. A Lewis gun mounted on the balcony of this building fired over the heads of marchers on Black Saturday.

Map showing movements of Mau and Police on Black Saturday

This article from the Truth describes how Mau supporters were making a mockery of the New Zealand administration in Samoa.

A group of Mau supporters, photographed outside the premises of Morris Hedstrom Ltd in Samoa

Not all Samoans supported the Mau. Even Mau estimates suggest that, at the height of its popularity, at least one in ten Samoans supported the New Zealand administration.

One of the Samoan terms for Samoa's part-European population is ‘afakasi. This term does not necessarily have the same negative connotations as its English translation, ‘half-caste’.

The Samoan Offenders Ordinance was used against Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III for one of the more trivial offences committed during Richardson's administration.

Map showing the boundaries of League of Nations mandated areas in the Pacific.

The text of the 1920 League of Nations mandate setting out the terms under which the former German Samoa would come under New Zealand jurisdiction.

Over a single week, prominent businessman and community figure O. F. Nelson had lost his mother, one of his two sisters, his only brother, and daughter-in-law. S. H. Meredith lost seven close relatives

Rather than accept responsibility for the influenza pandemic, New Zealand officials praised the efforts of their personnel in the face of adversity

Colonel Robert Logan in Apia, Samoa, on 30 August 1914, the morning after he assumed responsibility as military administrator.

New Zealand First World War transports Moeraki and Monowai leaving Wellington for German Samoa, on the 15th of August, 1914.

New Zealand officials raise the Union Jack at Apia courthouse, Samoa, on 30 August 1914.

Cartoon about the New Zealand occupation of German Samoa in 1914.

These images show New Zealand troops en route to German Samoa then landing and marching through the streets on 29 August 1914.

Approximately 8500 people, one-fifth of the population of Western Samoa, died during the influenza pandemic.

The total number of deaths attributable to influenza is estimated to have reached 8500, or 22% of the Samoan population