“STOP PLAYING CRICKET” Samoan P.M.’s Final Warning To People

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30984, 14 February 1966, Page 16

“STOP PLAYING CRICKET” Samoan P.M.’s Final Warning To People

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.AJ APIA, February 12. The Prime Minister of Western Samoa (Fiame Mata’afa) said today that if a “minority” of the people in his country did not stop playing cricket and begin work on hurricane reconstruction he would invoke emergency powers to force them realise the seriousness of the situation.

Under the Samoan Constitution the Government may, in the face of a national disaster, issue a 30-day proclamation of emergency.

“I will give the people one more warning,” said the Prime Minister. “If they do not respond to it I will have no hesitation in invoking the emergency powers.” Mr Mata’ Afa said he was “ashamed” for New Zealanders and others who had given aid to see the people playing cricket along the roadside while emergency supplies were ferried in from the airport "GOOD LESSON” “The hurricane could in some ways be a good lesson for the Samoan people,” Mr Mata’afa said. "They have had the easy life for so long it is difficult for them to realise that the road to nationhood is a hard one to travel along. “You might say that the present disaster is a drastic way to learn but I believe that in the long run it could be to Samoa’s advantage.” The Prime Minister said

that about £500,000 would be needed to repair hurricane damage in the country. “We must obtain this money from whatever source it is available,” Mr Mata’afa said. “We would hope it would be in the form of grants or gifts from various countries but if this is not practical we will have to raise it by loans.” The Prime Minister said Samoa would like to receive as much aid from New Zealand as was available. But his country did not want to force New Zealand to give anything which it did not want to give. HOLDING TARO The food shortage would probably be at its worst in two to three weeks and in some villages could be “very serious indeed,” he said. The Government planned to buy up taros which had been grown for export The export of taros has been prohibited.

Withto a month the banana boats Tofua and Matua, which make calls at Apia every two weeks, would be going away empty. “I cannot gee the export of any banana* for nine months to a year,” he said. “Once the fruit brought down by the hurricane leaves the country we will have no exportable produce left.” The Prime Minister said exports of copra, one of the mainstays of the Samoan economy, would also be seriously affected. SEEKING U.N. AID A recommendation that Western Samoa apply to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation for long-term assistance to restore the country’s economy was adopted by the spceial Hurricane External Relief Committee in Apia today. The Prime Minister is expected to approve it for forwarding to the U.N. immediately. Western Samoa will ask the F.A.O. to send an expert from Rome to assess the best way to restore and improve the nation’s export crops.