Samoa
The thought of South Sea Islands conjures up pictures of treasure-trove and pearls, of joy-rides on turtle back, of dusky beauties with scarlet hybiscus blooms in their hair, and of fat, naked brown babies rolling on the sun-kissed sands.
Readers of Robert Louis Stevenson will know Samoa and the Samoans as he knew them, and will picture the life on the islands he loved—gentle and entrancing—and breathe the soft atmosphere undisturbed save by the gurgle of rivulets flinging spray, on which small rainbows dance, over lichen-covered boulders flanked by feathery tree ferns.
Samoa, Upolu, Fanuatapu—the very sound of the names has in it the cadence of the murmur of the surf over coral reefs and silver sands, or the whisper of perfume-laden breezes in tall palms fringing blue lagoons.
That is the more aesthetic conception; but there is a sordid view open to the imagination in blood-spattered, headless corpses, victims of tribal fights, or "the white men on the beach," in turn victims of unbridled passions and "square-face" gin.
The beachcombers of the South Seas have enriched the slang of our language with the expression "on the beach," or "on the pebbly," to denote a hopeless financial condition; but as a class these pyjama-clad, unlaced-booted gentry represent the limit of degradation—the bottom of the depths.
To natives all white men are chiefs, but "surely these are not great chiefs?" asked one of the Samoan islanders, indicating the whites who dream the idle hours away on the sandy beach of Samoa.
Papua, or New Guinea, again, is in the mind immediately associated with fearsome weapons of warfare made of carved wood, with collections of smoke-dried human heads with fantastically tattooed faces, and horrid feasts at which the pièce de résistance was sirloin of "methody" missionary.
The Samoan Islands are perfect in their beauty, and all the conditions, including the ease with which the bare necessaries of life were produced from natural resources, conduced to a dolce far niente sort of existence amongst the natives, by which the whites also became infected.
The Samoan group, which forms the entrepôt of all the islands round where trade is carried on, consists of fourteen islands, of which eight, Savaii, Manono, Apolima, Upolu, Fanuatapu, Manua, Nu'utele, and Nu'ulua, were German—the remainder being British and American.
Savaii is roughly 50 miles long by 10 miles wide, comprising some 650 square miles; while Upolu, 22 miles east of Savaii, comprises about 340 square miles.
All the islands are of volcanic origin, and rise to rugged elevations; while they are surrounded by coral reefs intersected by passages through which the navigation is difficult and dangerous. Savaii, rising to 5,400 feet, possesses an active volcano; Upolu reaches an elevation of 3,200 feet; while Tutuila, separated from Upolu by a channel 36 miles in width, is 2,300 feet at its highest point.
On all the islands there is a certain scarcity of fresh water inland, but it is plentiful on the lower slopes and above high-water mark on the seashore.
While the climate is moist, it is never excessively hot; and the fertility of the soil is such that it is almost a drawback, for the extreme productiveness of the soil obviates the necessity for strenuous labour on the part of anyone who occupies a patch of ground whereon to grow cocoa-nuts, yams, etc.
On the Island Upolu, R. L. Stevenson's home, is Apia, the port and centre of Samoan trade. At Apia Stevenson died on the 5th December, 1894. He was much loved by the Samoans, and was by them buried on the top of Vasa Mountain, 1,300 feet above the sea.
Saluafata is the next harbour of importance; but both Apia and Saluafata are open harbours, and during the months of January, February, and March are particularly insecure, owing to the hurricanes which prevail.
The Samoan Islands contain less than 600 white inhabitants, and the native population is a little over 40,000. The natives residing on Upolu amount to 18,000, and on Savaii 13,000; while imported labourers total about 1,500.
The origin of the natives is obscure, but ethnological students have declared them to be closely allied to the Maoris of New Zealand, and to have their origin in China; and there seems to be no reason to doubt their judgment.
While cannibalism was prevalent throughout the islands of the South Seas, its practice has always been denied by the Samoans.
By nature the Samoan natives are indolent, and would look upon any uncalled-for exertion as a midsummer madness; while, to the Samoan mind, the idea of growing food such as cocoa-nuts, etc., for the purpose of sending it away and selling it, held about it something barbaric, unhandsome, and absurd. There is for him no conceivable object in growing anything more than is necessary to provide daily food, and consequently he would have no share nor parcel in such a practice.
The question of labour, therefore, has always been a pressing one on the plantations; and to provide this Chinese have been imported under indentures, and by Chinese labour all the work is carried on.
From the time of their first gaining a footing in Samoa, the Germans began to oust the natives from the land; and as the Samoans could not be got to work, plantations were established under German managers who proceeded to extract from it, by means of the cheapest foreign labour procurable, as much as it would yield.
At Apia, which Stevenson describes as the seat of the political sickness of Samoa, a controlling German firm was established who gradually obtained possession of the most fertile lands, but their titles were at times of the flimsiest.
The same writer describes how a visitor would observe, near an ancient Samoan village which he had been informed was the proper residence of the Samoan kings, a notice-board set up indicating that the historic village was the property of the German firm. These boards, he adds, which were among the commonest features of the landscape, might be rather taken to imply that the claim had been disputed.
If the "sales" of land from the natives to the German firm were questionable, the Samoans beheld in the firm only the occupier of their land, and consequently regarded the constant raiding of the German plantations and the stealthy gathering of the cocoa-nuts merely in the light of a very trifling peccadillo, and certainly not as theft.
Such land as the firm was unable to find labour to work was "mortgaged" to natives, who were compelled, under a penalty of imprisonment, to sell their copra to no one except to the mortgagee. The firm, which Stevenson describes as "the true centre of trouble, the head of the boil," of which Samoa languished thus gradually, got into its own hands the practical monopoly of trade.
The trade of the islands of the South Pacific was, as previously stated, always regarded in Europe as a most valuable one; and when in 1711 a monopoly of trade with South America and the Pacific Islands was granted to the South Sea Company in England, its riches were popularly looked upon as illimitable and the shares of the South Sea Company stood at one time at a premium of 900 per cent.
The bursting of the "South Sea Bubble," however, was the end of monopolies until the era of the German firm, whose agents gained a preponderance even in Fiji.
The principal article of Samoan trade is copra, and the value of land is assessed according to its growth of cocoa-nuts.
The trade was eminently suited for Germans, as the natives readily bartered for cheap and flashy goods "made in Germany."
In the vicinity of Apia uncultivated land is worth from £15 to £25 an acre, and cultivated land planted with cocoa-nuts from £20 to £40; while "bush" land faced a value ranging from 8s. to £2.
In addition to palm-oil and copra, Samoa yields the usual tropical products of cocoa, coffee, tobacco and rubber, as well as vegetable ivory.
From Samoa the export of copra in 1912 amounted to £200,000, and owing to the increased utility found for copra and its steady rise in price during recent years, further planting has energetically proceeded, though somewhat interfered with by the appearance of the rhinoceros beetle.
The pest seems to have been introduced in baskets of earth in which rubber stumps were packed, and soon obtained a firm hold upon the plantations, though the Samoan Government has made strenuous efforts to extirpate it.
"The larvae usually proceeding from eggs deposited in decayed cocoa-nut stumps are found in large quantities six to twelve inches beneath the soil, in masses of rubbish, where they gradually transform themselves into beetles. On coming to the surface they fly from tree to tree and feed on the leaves, especially on the centre leaf of the cocoa-nut palm—the heart of the tree—which, being eaten up, the tree dies. The eggs, it is said, are always deposited by the beetles above the ground, and turn into caterpillars, which, boring their way through loose soil and rubbish, then become larvae."[H]
Rubber is of comparatively recent introduction into Samoan production, and only amounted to £646 in 1911.
Tapping really only commenced in that year; and though later figures are not available all reports as regards the quality of Samoan rubber are reassuring, and the prospects of the industry are regarded as excellent.
Cocoa, however, has been grown for many years, and in 1911 was exported to the value of £38,508, despite the ravages of the "cacao canker," which attacks the older trees, the young ones under eight or nine years old being seldom if ever affected.
Amongst other industries is the collection of phosphates, the value of which, exported from the Pacific Islands in 1912, amounted to £250,000.
The following official report was made last year on the phosphate industry in the islands of Nauru and Angaur:
"The Pacific Phosphate Company in 1912 shipped from the islands 138,000 tons (as against 90,000 tons in the previous year). The Company suffered from a gradually growing lack of labourers, which was in the end overcome by the importation of coolies. At the end of 1912, 59 Europeans, 90 Chinese, and 576 natives of the Protectorate were employed in the phosphate mines on the Island of Nauru. The works were improved and extended in many directions. The Deutsche Suedsee Phosphat Aktiengesellschaft exported from Angaur 54,000 tons of phosphate, as against 45,000 tons in the previous year. The total annual production has consequently increased by 57,000 tons. While on Nauru Island labour was scarce, on Angaur several plants had to be finished before work could proceed to the full extent. Labour conditions were here satisfactory."
The imports to Samoa are principally cheap "trade goods," and include large quantities of calico, petticoats of which are worn by both men and women. The latter purchase white dress-stuff and have them printed by native dyers with a dye known as tapa.
The value of imports in 1911 totalled £203,312.
Galvanised iron has grown more and more in demand, the wild sugar-cane disease having nearly destroyed the manufacture of the picturesque native thatch.
New Zealand and Australia have a regularly connecting line of steamers, and in 1913 a better connection was provided for the whole South Sea District (by the Germans of course) by a steamship line from Singapore which touched New Guinea as well as Samoa.
The South Seas have for many decades been the field of fruitful labour of missionaries, and as a result of their work in their native schools every Samoan can read and write his own language. The Government had a school for white and half-caste children at Upolu in which they were taught English.
After annexing Samoa the Germans established a Government, taking the form of a Government Council, consisting, besides the members who occupied official positions, of eight persons selected by the Governor, and who were chosen from the leading merchants and planters. The votes of the general public as regards the election of these were presented to the Governor for his information, but he was not compelled to act in accordance with them—the votes merely indicating the popular wish in the matter. Up to 1912 two councillors, who received no salary, were Englishmen but subsequently all were German.
The Germans took steps to get rid of "the white men on the beach," and the class of white who dreamed the hours away there were discouraged by a deposit of £25, or a guarantee for that amount, being required to be placed in the hands of the collector of customs before strangers from foreign countries could land, unless they intended leaving again by the next or following steamer.
Up to December, 1912, pleading by foreigners in the Imperial Court in Apia was allowed in the English language by persons who could not speak German, but this was then stopped and all Court proceedings were held in the German language, or, where those concerned could not speak German, by means of an interpreter. Interpreters were provided by the Court for witnesses, but not for parties to suits nor for anyone appearing for them. In the custom-house and post office, however, English was still permitted.
The Government was extremely anxious to increase the use of the German language in Samoa, but as regarded trade and commerce the proximity of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji caused the knowledge of English to be of far more importance to the residents, whatever their nationality.