MATAAFA AND THE GERMANS.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 150, 26 June 1889, Page 5

MATAAFA AND THE GERMANS.

A MAGNANIMOUS SPEECH.

Latest Sarnoan files to hand furnishuswith filler particulars of the dinner or feast igiveti at Samoa by Mataafa, at whicb Admiral Kimberley, the American Consul,

and nearly all the prominent American andl English residents were present. Thfc Gorman officers had been invited, buij would not attend, although they had been; present in force atTaroasese's dinneraweek : previously. The speech on behalf of Mataafa was delivered by the principal chief pre-; sent, and he said" -.—"His Majesty has ex- J pressed great pleasure at seeing so many o£.; the European residents of Samoa respond.; to his invitation. He looks upon it as showing your friendship and goodwill towards him and his people, also divining.from thai t \ame cause your good behaviour,..'your,! good will, and your assistance to him; ahotold his Government be established,' and also hopes that this goodwill will always . exist between the European j residents and his people. You all knowv the prpverb, ' that a child must crawl be* \fore he can walk or run,' so with me anS j my people—we are but infants in the ark: of governing, and more so of doing or per- \ forming part of the functions of go- i verping .Europeans who are so used to the.' Jaws and the government of your own coun- j lyies. His Majesty expresses great sorrow ; a6the,a?3sence df his German friends. Iti>; pasned him very ranch, as he was in hopea; ot seeing some of them mixing with us here to-day. His Majesty says: I, my chiefs, and my people, do not bear them any ill; will • from ifc - * extend to them the j hand of friendship as I do to you to-day. • The piisb is past, and it was in one way an; unfortunate affair, nob of my seeking or j wish, oiHdeefe* I cay now, for my chief a; and people, past be buried m ob-; livion, a£d fr<?ni*lH£i time forward I hope, andlpray we fnends. They the ; Germans/and my c>& ia a * d P 6 ?^.* 1 ? b «r friends. Not of the L^.» fch > b » fc . , f . nends °f the true heart friendship and abiding to all time. This is a small g/ OU P ? f ial^ nds with few inhabitants, but aadly bowed down with grief- wrned ac id were, and nothing but dry bon^ 8 IeIL ™. certify that once we had life, and, a. * thed? '■ told in the Bible, that Jehovah bn. « o c: out the dry bones, they rose again fux %„ life. So it is with us Samoans. We ha \» been dead, and you of the United States, j who have proved yourselves our true frienda in time of trouble, have put new life into us—breathed into us life and strength, so i that we have risen from the dead, and all !| nations know us now to be a living people,; with;a hope and a future before us." ;