Samoa Loses Services

Of Judge Marsaik

The Government of Western Samoa is faced with some problems , but vill be more difficult than that of filling the post of Chief Judge, which ing vacated in a few weeks by Judge C. C. Marsack.

e Chief Judge’s term was nearly jd. Because he is greatly :ted and trusted by all classes, s the general hope and expecta hat Chief Judge Marsack should in on in Samoa for a while, as adviser to the Government the new conditions—and ially while the new Constitution ng tried out. The judge himself ted to stay on. t, owing to some misunderstand tid muddle in Cabinet, the Chief i was told that his term would tended by only one year, instead he customary three. Judge ack thereupon decided that he 1 retire from Samoa and live id in Fiji, where he has a ise of frequent calls to the Fiji

Appeals Court.

Mrs. Marsack recently went to Suva, and purchased a property at Lami.

Then the Samoan Cabinet turned a rapid somer sault, and asked the Chief Judge

main for another three years, is by now too late—he was al committed to residence in Fiji, e post of Chief Judge in Samoa t only of importance in rela ;o the smooth functioning of the ary system and the introduction new Constitution. It is vital the man holding that office d understand Samoan traditions anguage, if the Lands and Titles t is going to function as it has e Germans were wise colonial nistrators; and they realised in their era that if Samoa was lave political and economic ?th, in association with Euro there must be a sound system md ownership and land titles; so they established a Land t system that was a model.

Zealand wisely continued the m. Some old commentators said that, had it not been for Land and Titles Court, there d have been civil war in Samoa

in the earlier years of the NZ regime.

Nothing has contributed more to the progress made by the Samoans and the NZ-Samoan administration, since World War 11, than the work of Chief Judge Marsack as head of the Land and Titles Court.