Tropicalities

American Samoa’s information officer, Ed Engledow, had a pretty knotty problem on his hands recently. Here’s how he explains it in a letter to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: I had a rather difficult letter to write the other day in answer to a query from Mr. Frank J. Sutley, director of the Geography Depart ment of Encyclopedia Britannica, in Chicago. Mr. Sutley, naturally a stickler for accuracy, had discovered that in 1969 our government had supplied him with information indicating that Fagatogo is the capital of American Samoa and that in 1970 we had listed Pago Pago as the capital. He wanted to know which report was correct.

Looking at it from a strictly legal standpoint. I was able to tell him that the Territorial Constitution says, “the seat of the government shall be in Fagatogo”. After that an explanation gets a bit complicated.

For instance, a few months ago the office of the Governor and most of the Executive Department officers moved from Fagatogo to an old hospital complex in Utulei which might well be considered the territory’s capital building.

There was a bit of grumbling at the time from a few people who contended the move was unconstitutional. Governor John M. Haydon shrugged off the criticism by pointing out that the move had been authorised and budgeted by the Legislature before he took office. But he said that if it would make anyone happy he would put a chair in his old office in Fagatogo, which had been converted into a court room, and go there and sit in it for five minutes a day to keep the seat of the government constitutionally in Fagatogo.

Then in November the Legislature building, located in Fagatogo, was destroyed by fire. The Legislature is operating in makeshift quarters in Fagatogo now and no one has decided where the new permanent Legislature will be built.

How did Pago Pago manage to get listed incorrectly as the capital m th Wellfit P seems that Pago Pago as a name is well kn °wn throughout the Pacific although it is simply a very pleasant village at the head ot when you write to anyone here X ou ° or ™ address the letter to Pago Pago and it will end up m a Post Office which is located, complete with zip code 96920, smack in the ™ ldd J| k ° f t he Ba pago Pago International Airport. It is located at Tafuna which is about nine miles from Pago Pago.

PanAm, American Airlines or Air New Zealand will happily sell you a ticket to Pago Pago but try to buy one to Tafuna. It cant be d ° ne So it follows that a traveller might demand that the airport provide him with ground transportation to Pago Pago which is the destination point on his ticket. However, that will probably never happen because the traveller probably will be staying at the Pago Pago Inter-Continental Hotel. It is located in Utulei.

Speaking of hotels, the new Malaeimi Hotel is probably named because it is g located in the village of Malaeimi. But it is owned by a conation named South of Pago Pago. Inc And Malae.mt is not south of Pago Pago. It’s way over to the south-west.

Evervone seems to want Pago Pago in the act. Efforts are being made a badly needed golf course here. The prime movers behind it have named their group the Pago Athletic and Golf Organi sation (PAGO). But if and when the golf course is built it will be located about 15 miles west of Pago Pago.

This is not to say that visitors don’t ever get to Pago Pago. They do And if they find themselves afoot and thirsty they call the Pago Cab Service which is located in Fagatogo. The taxi would take them to the Pago Bar. It’s in Fagatogo, too. Or if they are non-drinker?