Mau versus mandate cartoon, 1930

Mau versus mandate cartoon, 1930

'Samoa! Mandate pants or banned badge - which?', New Zealand Observer, 28 March 1930.

The Administrator of New Zealand's mandate over Western Samoa, Stephen Shepherd Allen, is demanding that a Samoan changes his lavalava (or native dress), which is labelled 'Samoan customs – Mau', for black trousers labelled 'mandate rule'.

New Zealand's administration of the mandate had been under severe challenge from the Mau nationalist movement. A cruiser arrived from New Zealand early in 1930 to help suppress the Mau, and the administration threatened to use hundreds of non-Mau Samoans to reinforce the sailors in hunting them down. The Mau came out of hiding in late March 1930 and agreed to disperse, around the time that this cartoon was published.

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