STEVENSON’S TOMB

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 106, 29 January 1938, Page 10

STEVENSON’S TOMB

Alleged Neglect By Administration ENGLISH COMPLAINT “Better Cared For Under German Control” Complaints that the grave v£ Robert Louis Stevenson ou the summit ot Mount Vaea, Samoa, has been seriously neglected during the period of New Zealand administration, were referred yesterday by Mr. O. F. Nelson, o£ Apia, who is at piesent in Wellington. Mr. Nelson said that lie himself had never visited Stevenson’s tonlb, but from what he knew it was much better cared for during the German administration. An article published in the “Sunday Times,” London, last month, stated that visitors had commented on the condition of the grave to-day, compared with when Germany was in control, and that efforts were being made to interest the New Zealand Government in its responsibilities. An allegation was made that apart from the neglected state of the tomb, vandals had not been prevented from scratching their names on it and tbab some had even gone to the extent of removing pieces of the concrete slab which covered the grave. “There have been many previous ‘complaints concerning New Zealand’s lack of interest in the great writer’s resting-place,” the article added. ‘‘The last followed Mie report of Captain Rignell, of the Swedish motor-ship Tolken, made early this year. As the result of that report representations were made to the New Zealand Government by the Robert Louis Stevenson Club, in Edinburgh, but travellers report that little has been done other than a formal acknowledgment of the complaint by the Administration of Western Samoa, and a statenftnt that it is extremely difficult to stop vandalism.” “I have never visited Stevenson’s tomb,” said Mr. Nelson, when invited to comment on the article. “When I was in London, and because I came from Samoa, I was frequently asked whether I bad been there. My reply was, ‘No; but have you seen the place where he was born?’ My friends used to say, ‘No.’ My reply to that was, ’Well, I have.’ “When I was in Scotland Lmade a point of visiting the little white house in Edinburgh where Stevenson was born,” continued Mr. Nelson. "I knew Stevenson. I was born and bred in Samoa, and as a child I can recollect seeing him riding about on a pony. We children thought him a strange man. Of course, he was practically unknown to the Samoan people, and those who did know him were naturally unaware of his greatness as an author because they could not speak English. “He was so kind to his friends that they built a road up to his home at Vai’lima, and it was Stevenson himself who said, ‘This road shall be known as the road of loving hearts.’ His tomb, as everybody knows, is on the summit of Mount Vaea, overlooking his old home. “Stevenson is revered throughout the world, but nowhere more than in America, where the people seem to be under the impression that the Samoans get up in the morning, go down on their knees and say a prayer to the great Tusitala.” Asked for his opinion upon a suggestion in the “Sunday Times article that a curator should be appointed to care for the tomb and prevent vandalism, Mr. Nelson said that the cost would be fairly great. The grave was situated on the summit of the mountain, and thp food for a curator would have to be carried up the hillside through heavy tropical undergrowth. It was sad to think that anyone should commit vandalism at such a sacred place. The practice, unfortunately, existed and was difficult to prevent.