WESTERN SAMOA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22101, 3 November 1933, Page 7

WESTERN SAMOA

LAND AND TITLE CLAIMS POINTS OF NATIVE LAW DECIDED. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, November 2. A very lengthy sitting of the Land and Titles Commission has just been completed, writes the Samoan correspondent of the United Press Association at Apia. The commission generally holds two sittings every year for the purpose of settling land disputes, and disputes over chiefly titles and names. The Chief Judge (Mr J. H. Luxford) presided, and Mr W. M'Bride (Secretary of Native Affairs) and Mr C. M‘Kay (Assistant Secretary) eat with the president as’ assessors. The commission is assisted by eight Samoan chiefs, who sit in an advisory capacity. On the list were two important cases which each occupied the commission for a number of days. The first concerned the name Felepo and the right to confer the name. The original holder of the name was the grandfather of the first Malietoa, and lived nearly 900 years ago.

The second case was to determine the ownership of a large area of land taken by the Administration for water supply purposes. The land in dispute formed part of a block of 14,500. acres acquired in the early seventies by the representative of a German firm. The Treaty of Berlin, in 1889, put the onus on every European owner of land, to prove his title. An International Land Commission was set up to inquire into all European claims. The work of the commission took nearly five years. There were over 400 separate claims in respect of the block of 14,500 acres, but the land commissioners recommended a compromise. The recommendation was adopted, and half the land was given back to the Samoans.

The present case necessitated an investigation of the proceedings of 40 years ago for the purpose of determining the ownership of the lands that were handed back to the Samoans. There were eight separate claims of ownership, but the Land and Titles Commission decided in favour of the Seumanutafa family. The judgment of the commission also determined the rights of the several members of the family consequent upon a mavaega ’ (will) made by Seumanutafa Moepogai, the Samoan hero of the great hurricane in 1889.