Sixty Years
p. 45 · Read in the full issue
In Samoa
One of the Grand Old Men of Samoa’s European population is Rupert Berking {above) now aged 81 years—6o of them spent in Western Samoa.
Mr. Berking was born in Hanover in 1880, where he was educated. He went to Samoa in 1900 after German annexation, already having spent three years in Hawaii. Within a few years he was Collector of Customs. With NZ control he became a businessman and planter and in the intervening years he has been a prominent, active and much respected member of the community. The old “Cyclopedia of Samoa”, which in 1907 reproduced the photograph of Mr. Berking shown below, had this to say of him: “His position as Collector of Customs he fills with credit to himself and ad vantage to the Government. The courteous manner in which he at all times discharges his duties has made him very popular”.