'No amnesty’ say Samoan leaders

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33929, 23 August 1975, Page 2

'No amnesty’ say Samoan leaders

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, August 22. Samoans who have overstayed temporary permits, and who want to remain permanently in New Zealand, do not have the support of Wellington’s Samoan Advisory Council.

The secretary of the council (Mr Lani Tupu) said last night that efforts to win an amnesty for those who had overstayed their permits were “ill-advised and not in the best interests of the Samoan people, or Samoa itself.”

ority of Auckland’s Samoan community.

The Auckland Samoan Advisory Council, which represents the majority of the Samoans in Auckland, was also against any change in the present situation. He hoped that the two provincial advisory councils would be given the opportunity to give their views on the petition which was handed to the Minister of Housing (Mr Douglas) who later presented it to Parliament.

The council represents the majority of the 8000 Samoans living in Wellington, and the Hutt Valley. Mr Tupu said that a party of 100 Samoans who marched on Parliament yesterday with a petition urging the Government to grant an amnesty to those who had overstayed, represented an Auckland splinter 'group who spoke for a min-

Mr Tupu said that Samoans were not discriminated against, as the deputation claimed.