Samoa's Sex Crimes
p. 39 · Read in the full issue
Sharp Increase in W.
From Our Own Correspondent WHEN sentencing a Samoan to seven years’ imprisonment for rape, Chief Judge C. C.
Marsack commented in August on an alarming increase in the number of sexual offences in Western Samoa, and said that heavy sentences would be imposed.
Official figures show that in the first seven months of 1955 eight per sons were convicted, in the High Court at Apia, on charges of rape, and six were convicted on charges of indecent assault.
There were other cases of assault on women, as well as charges of
unlawful entry to premises by night, which often come in the same category.
Western Samoa’s figures compare very unfavourably with those of New Zealand. Convictions for sex offences in the Dominion represent less than one to every 10,000 of the population. The Samoan figures are approximately three times as great.
Miss Mary Edwell-Burke, widely known in the Islands as Miss Mary Edwards, held an exhibition of her paintings at Sydney from Sep tember 5 to September 14. The selection included a great variety of subjects painted in New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Java, New Zealand and Australia.