REVIEW ON ABUSE OF POWER BY MATAI COMPLETED

The Samoa Law Reform Commission Annual report indicates that a discussion paper on ‘Pule a le Matai Sa’o’ has been completed. 

The move came after the Term of Reference from Prime Minister to SLRC on 28 April 2015 “to consider legislative measures to address concerns about reported abuse of power by some Matai Sa’o (normally over decisions relating to matai titles and customary land).” 

According to the report, the Commission’s work on this project started in March 2016, resulting in a Discussion Paper which was submitted to Cabinet on 5 May 2016. There was also public consultations on this project in  October 2016.  

(Source: Samoa Observer)

AMERICAN SAMOA URGED TO TAKE HAWAII'S LEAD ON ECONOMIC GROWTH

An economist from the United States Department of Interior says American Samoa should look at what Hawaii does if it's to maintain fiscal stability.

Wali Osman says Hawaii is regarded as one of the most financially stable states of the union because its laws require it to live within its means.

Mr Osman was in the territory earlier this month to gather input from government and private section officials on how American Samoa can achieve economic growth.

He said American Samoa should study the Hawaii approach which also includes a requirement that any budget growth is more than matches by wage increases.

"And that has to be certified by the Hawaii judiciary. So if the government of Hawaii says we need to increase the budget by nine percent they have to show that personal income increased nine percent. If personal income increased one percent their budget has to increase less than one percent."

(Source: RNZ)

MĀORI ANCESTRAL REMAINS TO RETURN HOME FROM SWEDISH MEDICAL MUSEUM

A Swedish medical university is returning three Māori ancestors' remains to New Zealand.

In the 19th Century, the remains of Māori were often traded as curiosities or for scientific research.

The Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm has two Māori skulls and a toi moko (tattooed preserved Māori head) in its collection, and announced this week it would be returning them to Te Papa.

The director of the institute's Unit for Medical History and Heritage, Dr Eva Åhrén, told Morning Report the university was very pleased to be able to finally repatriate the remains.

"We think it's a moral obligation and very important commitment for us to work together with indigenous people around the world whose remains are now in our collections."

(Source: RNZ)

MASSIVE 19M WAVE WASHES AWAY SOUTHERN RECORDS

A wave the height of a six-story building in the Southern Ocean over the weekend could be the largest on record, and researchers expect their new buoy to record even bigger ones.

The monster 19.4m-high wave was measured by a new high-tech buoy, owned by science consultancy MetOcean Solutions, positioned south of the South Island.

MetOcean oceanographer Tom Durrant said the storm that generated the wave was "not huge".

"So it was a big storm but not an unusually big storm," he said.

"These storms regularly sort of pulse around Antarctica — and in the Southern Ocean it's a fairly unique situation in that there's a large area of sea that's just unbroken by land that allows the waves to just build and build and build."

He said conditions in that area of the ocean were so extreme the waves would get bigger, and could exceed 25m.

"Certainly a very big wave, but the conditions down there are so extreme we expect them to get bigger — the winter's just starting and as the winter storms start to build they'll only get bigger from here."

He said the buoy was partly solar-powered and transmitted its data by satellite, and there was a danger it could be lost. "So we don't want to have it all sitting on the buoy and potentially lose it in a very big storm.”

MetOcean said it is the southern-most buoy in the world, and the data which was expected to help understanding of waves in the region, would be made freely available to the scientific community.

(Source: RNZ)