"HOLLOW OF THE HAND."

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 154, 2 July 1927, Page 10

"HOLLOW OF THE HAND."

APOLIMA ISLAND. ANCIENT VOLCANIC CONE. IN A BEAUTIFUL LAGOON.

(By J.C.)

Apolima Island, which is by this time figuring in all the world's news as a kind of punishment isle to which the naughty little chiefs of Samoa are exiled, is the most romantically shaped spot in the group. It is an ancient volcanic mountain cone rising abruptly out of the sea, about thirty miles from Apia and midway between the western end of Upolu Island and the south-east Cape of Savaii. It is a huge black cup of dark volcanic rock with one fide of the cup gashed open down to the ocean, and the bottom of the interior filled with a beautiful little-lagoon. The only entrance is by a narrow passage which can only be entered by canoes or boats in fine weather; larger craft cannot enter at all. On the inner shore of the lagoon is a pretty village, all of the olden Samoan style, shaded by seawardleaning cocoanut palms. The inside of the lang-extinct crater is a picture of eye-refreshing verdure, in contrast to the black shining crags and sheer precipices of the outer side, quite unscable in most parts. Spings of water issue from the side'of the "hollow Ictus land." and there is a little stream. Here for generations a small tribe has lived: they are secure from invaders to-day always excepting the guns of a man-o ; - war. The surf-battered dills and the rough sea gateway are their defences. ° The little mountain isle and its musical name recall to mind when I saw many years ago from the deck of a New Zealand vessel—wc passed it quite close going to and coming from Apia—a certain -valley iii Lower California of which; I had read that the Spanish name of thfevallev meant "The Hollow of God's Hand." * Apolima resembles.not only a cup, but the hollowed palm of the handl In Maori we would call it variously Kapu-rima, Kapo-rima, Kapu-riiiga, or Kapo-ringa, meaning "the hollowed fiv#*:i.e., the hand; or the, alternately, opened and clenched hand. There is a Samoan legend which gives the origin of ihe name as "SpearpdisTng hand." Ylfe may transliterate this-.frefely into something like the -poetic Spanish Valley name. " Curiously, appropriate ju|j| now, too! Samoa's Administrator made it very clear, to" the chiefs that like the Deity he holds them in the. hollow of bis hand. Returning from Apia to Auckland in the Tutanekai, in I the Samoan war year of 1899, we saw I Apolima's sea-passage open out at fairly close quarters, and got a glimpse of the enticing groves of palms above the calm lagoon. "Why .not send a boat ashore arid get soflie fruit?* the captain was asked. The snip had not been able to get any

in Apia for its homeward journey; everything was required for the big Samoan camp at Mulinuu, the fortified quarters of the loyalists. "I've a great mind to, but I can't risk it," said Post. "They'd take us for a man-of-war and probably lire on the boat." The Tutanekai's commander was under orders to convey dispatches to Auckland, and a call at Apolimu was outside his instructions. The inhabitants were all adherents of Mataafa. 'and therefore technically rebels, and to them the strange white steamer could not lie on a friendly visit. So the Tutanekai's people left the . hollowcupped retreat astern, with mauv a longing glance as it faded into blue "distance Nowadays, there cannot be much of the rebel element about lone Apolima since it is considered a suitable place' of banishment for political offenders.