This week we have been focusing on reading comprehension and I have written a short summary below for a text on New Zealand-Samoa history that we read.
Summary of New Zealand-Samoa History
In the text we read, it explained the history between New Zealand and Samoa, and explained the importance of influenza, or the Spanish flu. The primary focus is how the Spanish flu changed New Zealand and Samoan history for a sharp but important turn. The text briefly mentions prior German control over Western Samoa before moving to New Zealand’s military enforcement over Samoa. It is said that a ship called the SS Talune landed carrying men with the flu to Samoa, which caused thousands of native Samoan lives. Following this, a politician and businessman named Ta’isi O.F. Nelson led the Mau Movement, a non-violent protest for Samoan independence from New Zealand. Eventually, around 1962, the New Zealand authorities gave in and signed the Treaty of Friendship between Samoa and New Zealand. Recently, in 2002, Prime Minister Helen Clark visited Samoa and apologised for mishandling the pandemic. This short and recent but important piece of local history shows how something as minor as a single ship later allowed an entire country to rise.