Gaol Sentence for
p. 23 · Read in the full issue
Samoan Chief Startling Liquor Case in American Samoa
Prom Our Own Correspondent
Apia, Feb. 6
MAUGA, District Governor of the Eastern District and County Chief of Mauputasi, and highest hereditary chief in Ameri can Samoa, was charged in the Pago Pago Court in January with smuggling two bottles of whisky, and was sentenced to three months’ gaol and a 50-dollars fine.
Mauga accompanied the retiring Governor of American Samoa, Mr.
John C. Elliott, together with other chiefs, to Apia, whence Mr. Elliott was to fly back to the States. He was presented with two bottles of whisky by Apia friends, and, when returning to Pago Pago, he did not declare the two bottles, and he re fused to have his luggage searched by the Customs Officer, like other passengers.
When the two bottles of whisky were found in his luggage he was charged before Chief Judge Arthur A. Morrow with illegal possession and importation of alcoholic liquor, and sentenced as above.
Following this sentence the new Governor, Mr. James Arthur Ewing, deprived Mauga of his Oflice as District Governor and County Chief, but he granted a stay of execution for 60 days to elect a new title-holder of the Mauga family, so as not to disgrace the title.
In granting the stay of execu tion the Governor explained that the plea of forgiveness, and the traditional ceremony of “Ifoga” (or voluntary humiliation of the chiefs and people of Pago Pago) could not be acceded to, as no man is immune before the law.
A suggestion was made to send Mauga to exile on the island of Manua, instead of to gaol. The liquor question in American Samoa is a sore problem, as some full and some part-Samoan Government officials are allowed to buy and consume “hard” liquor, while, in the case of Mauga, the full force of the law is used for a compara tively minor offence. In Western Samoa, Samoan chiefs and Samoan Government officials in many cases enjoy the same liquor privileges as Europeans.
The 60-days stlay of execution expires on March 1 and it will be interesting to see the course of events. So far, the chiefs of Pago Pago and the Mauga family seem reluctant to deprive the High Chief of his title, and it would certainly be an unparalleled disgrace for the highest Chief of American Samoa to be sent to gaol for this offence.