Niue’S Unrest

Disturbing Facts Behind The Larsen Murder

(Special Correspondent) PE trial of three Niue islanders, Latoatama (20), Tamaeli (22) and Folitolu (26) for the murder if the Resident Commissioner, Mr. 3. H. W. Larsen, on August 16, was loncluded at Niue on September 16.

Ml three accused admitted their ;uilt and were condemned to death. !he sentence will be carried out on he Island.

Move For Appeal—See page 123.

The evidence showed that one f the accused stole two bush knives rom a tool-shed at the Residency m the morning before the crime nd on the night of the murder this lan and five others—all of whom r ere prisoners and some of whom erformed duties at the Residency -escaped through the roof of a aol cell. All six seem to have been nplicated in the crime.

They first cut the telephone lines etween gaol and Residency; then vo separated from the others. The imaining four, after gathering ieir weapons from a place of hid ig, entered the house through the iotor garage. One of them then fused to go any further, and r entually returned to the gaol. The her three jointly attacked the eeping Resident Commissioner ith their knives.

Mrs. Larsen, in another bed, yoke, sprang out of bed to see nat was happening, and was at cked by one of the men with his life, suffering severe lacerations id multiple breaks to an arm.

The prisoners then fled, and the ro children, in another part of

e Residency, discovering the

agedy, went for assistance.

Mr. Larsen died some time after e doctor arrived. He identified e of the murderers.

Search parties combed the rugged ,and and the men gave them- Ives up on August 20. Two of em had kept diaries of their ivements after the murder—one itten in the margins of an Eng h magazine, and the other in a ble. [n defence, they alleged ill- Jatment by the Resident Com ssioner. They admitted the me, but considered that they had ne a service to the community, rhe magistrate and counsel for 5 Crown and for the defence, who re brought from New Zealand, t for Auckland as soon as the al was concluded.

Mrs. Larsen and the two chil m also left the Island after the -il e 18 in hospital in Auck id with a suspected fracture of b spine as well as other injuries.

HE murder of Mr. Larsen, in explicable at first glance, has to be considered against the Jkground of the peculiar circura

stances of an island community SUi rs«o a ?ei Nll i?'- n . . , , The island is small, very isolated, by no means rich; the people are very independent and most of them are strict and somewhat bigoted adherents of the London Missionary Society. There are about 4.300 Niueans and 30 Europeans on the Europeans being the Resident Commissioner who has very wide and (so the Niueans feel), despotic powers. Along with most other islanders the Niueans have subscribed in some measure to the post-war growth of nationalism and some of them have advocated government “ f ° rm ° f ViUage - elder government.

JfcE? 1 .set U P> small, pinirritations which would amount to much in a larger and less isolated community, can

become of magnified importance and eviden *ly, in this case, even led to the murder of the Resident Com missioner. It is hard to believe that the New Zealand Government was unaware of the undercurrents that have existed in Niue for some years.

Under Mr Larspn’s Rp^dpnf- Commissionership, Niue was effici ently run and Euroneans visitine the Territory—uslSlv after a caU at some ports in Tonea where

pride is Sot ve!V ev"§enWwere S

variably impressed bv the neatness and air of efficilncvin Nine Mr

Larsen popular l With oth^r

officers in" th e P "islands' 1 service and had a p i eas i ng personality.

It is no secret, however, that he was not popular with the Niueans, or that some considered him harsh and overbearing in his dealings

pth them. Even in his early ears on the Island, they petitioned 1Z three times for. his removal. Mr. .arsen usually told this story gainst himself and apparently re arded it as a joke. The depth of tie feelings of the Islanders was robably underestimated as a con jquence. pHERE have been several petty L incidents recently which Niueans regarded as fuel for leir discontent. Some of them, re irning to the island from Apia nd Pago Pago, brought with them considerable amount of kapok, hey had been warned that they ould likely not be permitted to md this because of risk of intro ncing rhinoceros beetle, but when le Resident Commissioner, quite roperly, refused them permission > take it in, the whole blame was pportioned to Mr. Larsen.

Then there was the Mormon in dent of a year ago. Niue has irtually been the close preserve : the London Missionary Society ir generations. About 15 months jo, the Mormon Mission an- Dunced that they were about to itablish a mission on the island; id it is no secret that this was tterly resented by the Rev. M. G. beck, LMS missionary there, and large proportion of the native iherents of the LMS.

The upshot of it was that a itition was sent from some of the landers to the NZ Territories De irtment, asking that the Mormons ; prevented from establishing .emselves on Niue. There then llowed a piece of political shilly tallying which, at the time, was ird to understand. The Minister whom it was sent denied for any weeks that he had heard of seen the petition; and then ad itted that it had been returned Niue, for some technical reason, nally, the Niueans succeeded in esenting their petition; but not fore leaders of the two sects had dulged in a wordy fight in the ,ily newspapers of New Zealand.

It was equally no secret that on ue the Resident Commissioner id Mr. Check held opposing views . the subject, Mr. Check evidently liming that, as the LMS had rved the Island for so many ars, it was quite unreasonable d unjustified to introduce another :t at that stage; and Mr. Larsen Iding the view—supported by the " Government—that there should liberty for all creeds to present eir views to the Islanders.

IHERE are arguments pro and con each view. It is well known that, in the past, the presenta n of differing forms of Christi ity to one community of primitive Dple has not always been in the st interests of those people. On s other hand, the Niueans hav l advanced beyond the stage iere they can properly be re eled as primitive, it could be said at it would be equally unhealthy

to prohibit them from receiving any other form of religious thought than that which tradition has given them.

Mr. Check left the island per manently at the end of last year and, rightly or wrongly, the RC was blamed by fanatical LMS adherents, both for this and for the fact that the Mormons were permitted to enter.

All these were small things but they eventually culminated in the brutal murder of the Resident Commissioner. The murderers made no effort to hide the fact that they believed that they were doing their fellow-islanders a service. And there is little doubt that many of the Islanders were in sympathy with the murderers.

It is apparent that the NZ Gov ernment tragically under-estimated the discontent that many people were aware existed on the Island and, if tragedy is not to be added to tragedy, more than the hasty execution of the three murderers, who regarded themselves as instru ments of destiny, will be called for.

The lot of Mr. Larsen’s successor will not be a happy one if some effort is not made to uncover and deal with the fundamental causes of the murder.

Move For An Appeal

Auckland, Oct 2."

Solicitor for the three Niueans sentenced to hang for murder, Mr.

E. T. Pleasants, has lodged an an peal, and wants it heard by tt Supreme Court here. As the mui derers confessed, there appears it ground for appeal, unless it against the death sentence. TT Justice Department has not yet df cided whether an appeal will T considered.