NELSON'S EXILE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 70, 23 March 1934, Page 5

NELSON'S EXILE.

SCENE AT SAMOA.

EFFORTS TO STAY SENTENCE.

CRICKET CRAZE POUOWS. 'From Our Own Correspondent.) APIA, March 10. On the day the Maui Pomare left Apia there was much activity among Mau leaders and supporters, and determined efforts were made to negotiate with the Administrator, Mr. Hart, for the freedom of 0. F. Nelson. A large party of Mau adherents had seen the Administrator at the courthouse and appealed to him to remit the sentence imposed on Nelson. When the Administrator had explained to them that he was not in a position to grant such a request, the natives, nevertheless, repeated their attempts in the afternoon, a few hours before the departure of the. Maui Pomare with Nelson on board. Several hundred Mau adherents who had obtained the support of some of the chief Government supporters, went up to the Administrator's residence at Vailima and practically besieged the Administrator for ho'jre, offering even the complete surrender of the Mau and the termination of all Mau activities in exchange for Nelson's freedom. Members of Nelson's family took part in the proceedings. But even this lasthour effort proved a complete failure, ■as t'ho Administrator could only repeat 'his statement that he was not in a position to interfere with a judgment of the Samoan High Court. So Nelson went into exile.

Things have been quiet since then, and the excitement amongst the natives due to the Nelson trial has apparently •been replaced by the revival of a new craze —cricket. In all the villages cricket games are going on between teams of the different villages.