NZ Protected Persons, But

No Home in NZ

FEW people outside of New Zea land and her Territories are aware that Western Samoans, unlike the Cook Islanders, are not allowed free entry into New Zea land. They are usually given a visitor’s permit for six months, and after that they remain only at the pleasure of the NZ Government.

Frequently these permits are not ex tended and return to Samoa is then compulsory.

This state of affairs was publi cised in NZ recently when Mr. F. L.

A. Gotz, a former resident of Wes tern Samoa and now a NZ parlia mentarian went on record as say ing that the present restrictions on Samoans entering NZ should be abolished.

At about the same time a deporta tation case involving a man called Stanley Annandale was before the NZ Courts. Annandale arrived in NZ on a Samoan visitor’s permit; it was extended once but second ex tension was refused. Annandale claimed he was of New Zealand citi enship but born in Samoa in 1924 at the time when the Territory was a Mandate. The Crown agrees that Annandale’s father was a natural born British subject but contends that Annandale is not, because Wes tern Samoa was not a true British territory at the time of his birth.

The outcome of the case is not expected for some time but it is of considerable interest to people of Samoan birth living in NZ.

Background details of this case are not available here, and the pre cise point of law on which the case rests is not clear. But it apparently is complicated by the generally un satisfactory method of defining national status for people resident m Trusteeship Territories. In Wes tern Samoa persons are either “New Zealand protected persons” or nationals of some Sovereign state.

The matter is further complicated because, domestically, residents are either of “Samoan” or “European” status—the latter category including the Chinese residents of the Terri tory and people of mixed descent.