This Act may be cited as the Samoa Amendment Act, 1926, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Samoa Act, 1921 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Section three of the principal Act is hereby amended by repealing paragraph (b) of the definition of the term “Samoan,” and substituting the following paragraph:—

Paragraph (a) of subsection one of section forty-eight of the principal Act, as amended by paragraph (a) of subsection one of section six of the Samoa Amendment Act, 1923, is hereby further amended by omitting the words “(not less than six in number),” and substituting the words “(not less than four nor more than six in number).”

Paragraph (a) of subsection one of section six of the Samoa Amendment Act, 1923, is hereby repealed.

Section three hundred and three of the principal Act is hereby amended by inserting, after the words “suits for nullity of marriage,” the words “and in suits for restitution of conjugal rights.”

Section three hundred and two of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting the words “or for restitution of conjugal rights.”

After the commencement of this section the provisions of Part XI of the principal Act shall not apply in divorce or other causes or matters matrimonial in any case where both parties to a marriage are Samoans.

The power conferred by the principal Act on the Administrator, acting with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council of Western Samoa, to make laws (to be known as Ordinances) for the peace, order, and good government of Samoa shall include power to make Ordinances with respect to divorce and other causes and matters matrimonial, the provisions of any such Ordinance to be applicable only in cases where both parties to a marriage are Samoans domiciled in Samoa.

This section shall come into force on a day to be fixed in that behalf by the Governor-General by notice published in the Gazette.

Whereas by clause twenty-four of the Samoa Constitution Order, 1920 (being an Order in Council made on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and twenty, pursuant to the Treaties of Peace Act, 1919, and to an Imperial Order in Council intituled the Western Samoa Order in Council, 1920), provision was made whereby certain officers of the New Zealand Public Service became entitled, for purposes of superannuation, to have every complete continuous year of service in the Samoan Public Service, after the commencement of the said Samoa Constitution Order, computed as one year and a half: And whereas the right so conferred has been preserved by section twenty-three of the Samoa Act, 1921: And whereas certain officers of the New Zealand Public Service were employed in a civil capacity in relation to the administration of Samoa during the period of military occupation before the commencement of the Samoa Constitution Order: And whereas it is deemed equitable that their period of continuous service in Samoa before the commencement of that Order should be computed in the manner in which service subsequent to that date is computed: Be it therefore enacted as follows:—

In this section the terms “Superannuation Act” and “New Zealand Public Service” have respectively the meanings assigned thereto in the Samoa Constitution Order, 1920.

In computing for the purposes of any Superannuation Act the length of service of any officer of the New Zealand Public Service who was employed in Samoa in a civil capacity in respect of the administration of Samoa at any time prior to the first day of May, nineteen hundred and twenty (being the date of the coming into operation of the Samoa Constitution Order, 1920), every complete continuous year of such service in Samoa shall be computed as one year and a half.

In the two next succeeding sections—

For the purposes of the last preceding subsection “the New Zealand Reparation Estates Order, 1920,” means the Order in Council originally intituled the Samoan Crown Estates Order, 1920, made by the Governor-General in Council, acting under authority conferred on him by the Treaties of Peace Act, 1919, and by the Western Samoa Order in Council, 1920 (being an Order in Council made by His Majesty on the eleventh day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty, under the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1890), the said Samoan Crown Estates Order being amended in title by the New Zealand Reparation Estates Order, 1926.

The moneys standing to the credit of the New Zealand Reparation Estates Account as on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty-six, shall, without further appropriation than this section, be applied as follows:—

Any moneys in the Reserve Fund hereinbefore referred to may be from time to time invested in securities in which for the time being other moneys in the New Zealand Reparation Estates Account may lawfully be invested; or may under the authority of and in accordance with an authorizing Order in Council be invested in loans to the Samoan Treasury. The profits accruing from investments under this subsection shall be credited to and shall form part of the Reserve Fund.

Every authorizing Order in Council under the last preceding subsection shall specify the amount of the loan, the rate of interest payable, and the terms of repayment.

Moneys credited to the Reserve Fund may from time to time, with the approval of the Minister of External Affairs, and without further appropriation than this section, be applied for any special purposes for the benefit of the New Zealand Reparation Estates, or may be paid into the Ordinary Revenue Account of the Consolidated Fund.

All payments heretofore made out of the New Zealand Reparation Estates Account to the Samoan Treasury shall be deemed to have been lawfully made.

All moneys paid into the Samoan Treasury by way of grant or loan under this section shall form part of the public revenues of Samoa within the meaning of the principal Act.

No person in the employment of the Government of New Zealand in respect of the New Zealand Reparation Estates shall by virtue only of such employment be deemed to be or to have been employed in the New Zealand Public Service for the purposes of the Public Service Act, 1912, or the Public Service Classification and Superannuation Act, 1908, but all such persons shall be deemed to be and to have been officers of the Samoan Public Service, and the provisions of section sixteen of the Appropriation Act, 1924, shall, subject to the special provisions of this section, apply accordingly to all such persons who are permanently employed in respect of the said estates:

Provided that the right of election conferred by subsection two of that section may be exercised at any time within six months after the passing of this Act by any person who is then permanently employed in respect of the said estates, and also that every person then so employed shall, in respect of his continuous service before the passing of this Act, be entitled to the benefits conferred by subsection five of the said section:

Provided further that the amount paid in any year out of the Samoan Treasury into the Public Service Superannuation Fund, pursuant to section sixteen of the Appropriation Act, 1924, in respect of persons to whom this section applies shall, without further appropriation than this section, be refunded to the Samoan Treasury out of the New Zealand Reparation Estates Account.