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Unusual Mass

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Chinese and Samoan Women Convicted of cohabitation

XThf Hfeh Courf “wLe"

1 oa 0 f 21 when 34 Chinese labourers (at present employed on the New Zealand Reparation Estates) and 34 Samoan women were lined up, and convicted of the offence of cohabitating.

There is a law in Western Samoa which says that Samoan women must not live with Chinese coolies on European plan tations.

The Chinese were ordered to come up f o r sentence within three months. The women, many of whom had small child ren with them in the Court, were sen tenced to three days’ in prison, after which they were to be sent back to their villages. The village chiefs were made responsible for seeing that the women did not return to the Chinese.

The New Zealand authorities are de termined to stop this cohabitation. On moral and social grounds, they doubtless are right. it is well known, however, that the Chinese treat their Samoan “wives” kindly and generously, and a home with a Chinaman is eagerly sought. Ethnolo gically, it has been shown that the off spring of a Chinese-Polynesian union are acclaimed the healthiest, brightest, handsomest and most industrious people in the Pacific.