Charities to get Samoan surplus

Press, 24 April 1984, Page 20

Charities to get Samoan surplus

PA Wellington Part of the funds originally raised to finance the Western Samoan citizenship case before the Privy Council will be given to three New Zealand charities. The money was raised by a special committee of the Wellington Samoan community, and as costs in the case were awarded against the New Zealand Government, the committee ended up with a substantial surplus. A committee spokesman, Tom Pulepule Aiono, said the committee discussed what it could do with the money, about ?17,000. “Some people suggested that the money go back to the Samoan community, but we decided that it would be an appropriate gesture of thanks to the New Zealand community for us to give the bulk of the surplus re-

maining to some good causes, which would help the New Zealand people as a whole. “We think it is a good thing to put something back into this community which has given us so much.” The Heart Foundation, the Asthmatic Foundation, and the Home of Compassion, will • each receive 54000. The balance will be given to the O.F. Nelson Memorial Library in Apia, Western Samoa, to assist in establishing an archive to record the Privy Council case. In the 1982 decision, the Privy Council ruled that Western Samoans born between 1926 and 1949 were New Zealand citizens. The judgment was soon after overturned by the New Zealand Parliament when the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act, 1982, was passed.