Trouble In

Islanders In

New Zealand

Mr Justice Speight of the New Zealand Supreme Court stirred up a lornet’s nest with some outspoken :omments about bringing unsophisti :ated Pacific Islanders into a metro •olitan environment with which they vere totally unfitted to cope.

He made his remarks when sent ncing a young Tongan to six years mprisonment for the manslaughter )f a Niue Islander.

The real criminal was liquor, he aid. Exposure to liquor was totally langerous to unsophisticated persons, t was a pity that the responsibility )f industrialists ended at knock-off ime.

Doubtless, it was praiseworthy to iclp economically under-developed ountries, but the pity was that it did lot seem to have been done by taking conomic aid to those areas, but ather by bringing its unprepared nembers to an unsuitable environ aent.

The young man, in a defence to a harge of murder, claimed he was so runk he could not be held to have atended to kill. The jury found him uilty of manslaughter.

Industrialists and employers did not ake Mr Justice Speight’s remarks ying down. They quoted cases where ousing, language lessons and coun elling assistance were provided.

There were few employers who were not deeply involved in the welfare of Islander employees.

There seemed to be more support for Mr Justice Speight than criticism.

Mr Robert Muldoon, leader of the Opposition, who calls a spade a spade, said Islanders who got into trouble with the law, should be sent home. Mrs Metaui Mata’afa, widow of the late Prime Minister of Western Samoa, and now a Western Samoa MP, agreed. She said Western Samoa would send home New Zealanders who did not behave.

If Western Samoans were sent home to the villages and were subject to the authority of the matai system they would soon be sorted out. The matai enforced traditional Samoan discipline which was absent when the young men went to NZ without their families.

The Minister of Education, Mr Amos, said Mr Justice Speight had accurately summarised the problems

facing Pacific Islanders settling in NZ.

The department had been aware of those problems for many years.

Several projects had been set up to help Pacific Islanders to settle.

The Western Samoa Trade Com missioner in NZ, Mr E. Stehlin, agreed with Mr Justice Speight that liquor was a problem with his people.

It was exposure to an unknown world of high wages, plenty of leisure time at night, and the attraction of liquor which led many Western Samoans into trouble.

He hoped New Zealanders would not think it was the character of Western Samoans and other Island people which led to problems.

A suggestion from the Rev L. I.

Sio, senior minister of the Pacific Islanders’ Presbyterian Church, New ton, Auckland, was that employers bank most of the money earned by

new arrivals, leaving just enough for

living and travelling expenses. After a few months, if the employer felt the Islander knew more about the NZ way of life he could pass control of the wages to the Islander.

Another suggestion was that the immigration rate be scaled down.

That would allow for more educa tional and recreational facilities to help condition the Islander to the fast pace of city life.