Independent State of Samoa Malo Sa'oloto Tuto'atasi o Samoa i
Sisifo CAPITAL : Apia FLAG : The upper left quarter of the flag
is blue and bears five white, five-rayed stars representing the
Southern Cross; the remainder of the flag is red. ANTHEM : The
Flag of Freedom. MONETARY UNIT : The Samoan tala ( S ) is a
paper currency of 100 sene. There are coins of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20,
and 50 sene and 1 tala, and notes of 2, 5, 10, 20, and 100
talas. S 1 = US $0.3333 (or US $1 = S 3.00) as of January 2003.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES : British weights and measures are used.
HOLIDAYS : New Year's, 1–2 January; Independence Holidays (first
three workdays of June), Anzac Day, 25 April; Christmas Day, 25
December; Boxing Day, 26 December. Movable religious holidays
are Good Friday, Easter Monday, and Whitmonday. TIME : 1 AM =
noon GMT. Samoan is the universal language, but both Samoan and
English are official. Some Chinese is also spoken. Most of the
part-Samoans and many others speak English, and it is taught in
the schools. Samoa