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.

The lethal influenza pandemic that struck New Zealand between October and December 1918 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