On a sailing ship, and on a naval cutter plying between Pago-Pago and Apia (both seen here), also on a schooner at Dunedin, N. Z., were the only instances since leaving New York when the Stars and Stripes was observed flying from vessels.
Upolu Island, on which Apia is located, is second in area to Savaii, being 38 miles long and 12 wide. Samoa is one place in the Southern Pacific Ocean that Abel Tasman was not the first to set eyes on, this group being discovered by Captain Roggeville, in 1721.
We reached Apia on a Sydney Sunday (Eastern time), which was Saturday in Apia (Western time). Naturally, Sydney's Monday was Apia's Sunday, so we had two Saturdays and two Sundays that week. It is difficult for the layman to understand how twelve hours can make a day, as we appeared to lose one after crossing the line of the 180th meridian from east to west.
A weekly newspaper of 48 columns, 25 of these advertisements, is published in Apia. Only 200 Europeans live in the town, yet a newspaper of that size appears to flourish.
The American consul called at the ship one evening in tropical evening dress to have a chat with the American passengers—four in number. He asked the captain of the vessel, who was a Britisher, to blow his whistle three times on sailing out of the harbor, when he would acknowledge the salute by lowering the flag on the staff at the consulate. The captain kept his word, the following day, but the flag did not move. There is nothing strange about such forgetfulness, however, for the consulate is located in "The Land of Delicious Idleness."
CHAPTER V
We will now say "Tofa" to that splendid race and their pretty islands and make a start for Tonga, when the day "lost" will be reclaimed, as we recross the 180th meridian. The captain did not turn back the ship's clock here, but kept the Sydney time.
Passing between two prominent stone walls, we entered the harbor of Vavau, Tonga, another group of the South Sea Islands. This group appears on some maps as the Friendly Islands. Abel Tasman, who discovered so many countries before any one else, but allowed others to claim what he first saw, discovered the Tongan group in 1643. Over a hundred years later Captain James Cook, the explorer, made three visits to these islands, before and after he had planted the British flag on Australia and New Zealand. The Tongans have always had self-government, but the group is under the protection of the British. The native ruling power is King George Tubou II. Parliament consists of 32 elected representatives and an equal number of hereditary chiefs, all of native birth. The islands also boast a Prime Minister, a Chancellor of the Exchequer, a Chief Justice and other high officials.
King George Tubou II., at the opening of Parliament, wears a European court suit, a gold and jeweled crown, and a long mantle of crimson velvet trimmed with ermine, which is supported by two boys attired in tights, trunks, and feathered caps, while the king's soldiers line the highway along which the royal procession marches. To maintain that standard of royalty the natives are taxed $10 each a year, with maturity age at 16. The native head tax in Fiji is $5, and in Samoa $3, so the Tongan pays highly for the royal atmosphere he breathes.