Samoan Sentenced To
p. 65 · Read in the full issue
Death
From Our Own Correspondent.
Apia, Sep. 27.
AFTER a short trial before Chief Judge Luxford and three European and one Samoan assessors, the Samoan native Sia osi, of Tuana’i, on the West Coast of Upolu, was found guilty of the murder of a neigh bour, Sifaga, of the same village, on July 13, and sentenced to death.
Trouble between accused and the mur dered man originated in a dispute over a
very small plot of land on the boundary of both men’s taro patches. Without serious provocation, Siaosi, after a previous ex change of words, approached the deceased, who was working on his land, and struck him several times over the head with a crowbar. Sifaga died in Apia Hospital two days later.
The defence was that the accused had been provoked by Sifaga and his family laughing and making fun of him.
The sentence has to be confirmed by the Governor-General of New Zealand.
Crimes of violence are on the increase in Samoa.