THE FOSTER CASE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 54, 12 September 1928, Page 6

THE FOSTER CASE

INCIDENTS IN SAMOA WERE THEY HUSHED UP? An explanation of what is known as tho Foster caso was asked of the Minister of Education (the Hon. It. A. Wright) by the Loader of the Opposition (Mi. 11. IS. Holland) in the House of Representatives yesterday. Foster, said Mr. Holland, was a teacher who went to Suvuii, Western Samoa, a§l eventually was found to have committed unmentionable offences against many of his pupils. The Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. Sir Maui Ponvaro): "He is dead now, isn't he?" "Yos," replied Mr. Holland, "but the Minister of Education is alive, and it is the Minister's action, or that of the Education Department, that I want to deal with. Whatever happened in Western Samoa «was hushed up." ■ The Miniser of Education (Mr. Wright): "It wasn't true." Mr, Holland said that he had letters in his possession written just on three years ago, and letters written, later than that, as well as information from people who had boon in the Government servico in Samoa, His information was that some...sort of • inquiry was-held, that tho allegations were proved, that Foster was. practically 'compelled' to leave Samoa, or at any rato allowed to come out of Samoa, that tho Government was notified by the Administration of what had happened, and that Foster was then allowed —whatever the influence was^—to come back into the Education Department in New Zealand, and either committed, pr attempted to commit, similar jrimes to those ho had committed in .Western Samoa. Subsequently, when the case was put into the hands of the police, Foster took his own life. The present Minister of Education might not be responsible, because perhaps hp \#s not in office at the time, but some explanation should be forthcoming as to why Foster was allowed to resume teaching when everybody knew of his pjjysieal and mental troubles. ' Although the matter was hushed up, the Sapioans knew all about it, and the Samoans, iv the light of their historical development, were a moral people. The Minister of Education said that he had looked up the file and the facts wero that when a suspicion was iirotised against Foster in Samoa an inquiry was held, Instructions were given that proceedings wero to bo taken against Foster, but no evidence could bo found. If witnesses could not be got to come forward to give evidence, the authorities could not very well condemn the man. When he came back, being.temperamentally unfitsMr. Holland: "Was not that the reason he was sent back from Samoa?" The Minister: "We were not told that in the report." v No further reply was made.