SAMOAN WAR EFFORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 October 1940, Page 9

SAMOAN WAR EFFORT

£lOO GIFT FROM FAKAOFU. Recording the gift of £lOO towards j the Western Samoan war effort from Fakaofu, in the Tokelau Islands, the | Samoan correspondent of the United | Press Association states: “The money | comes from a small community of i about 575, all Polynesians akin to the Samoans. There is no European in the | whole group. The Tokelau Islands are I three atoll rings of coral islands, never I more than 8 feet above sea level, and with about 1.200 inhabitants in all. They have been British since 1916, and in 1925 the oversight of their Administration was transferred to the authorities in Western Samoa, The highest local officials are the three native magistrates and a native medical practitioner; they are visited for a few hours once a year by European officials from Samoa. “The only staple item of trade is coconuts, and the quantity available is so small that shipping connection has always been precarious. At the present time, the islanders have had only one visit of a trading vessel in nearly two years, and are on a diet, comprised entirely Of local foodstuffs, which seldom varies from coconuts and fish. Long acquaintance with privation has made them a frugal people, and they are remarkable for the manner in which they have accumulated Post Office savings accounts in Samoa, one or two amounts being quite large but the others mostly small, and almost every Tokelau household has ready cash stored away to meet emergencies. It is from their accumulated funds in Apia that the gift of £lOO to war purposes has been made. At the same time they have made gifts of £ll to the Red Cross Society.”