The Cruise of the Mokoia

Maoriland Worker, Volume 11, Issue 180, 26 May 1920, Page 3

The Cruise of the Mokoia

Friday, March s.—We arrived opposite the town of Apia before 6 a.m., and anchored outside the reef. Shoreward, where shallow waters washed the coral, lay the rust-encrusted skeleton of. the. German gunboat, the "Adler," flung on the coral reef by the fury of the_ sea in 1889, what time two other German and three American warships were also either driven on the rocks helpless, hopeless wrecks, or sunk to the bottom pf the sea. It is written that the coral formation where the "Adler" lies is not unlike a huge shelf. When the "Alder" was hurled on top of this shelf, one of her sister ships was driven underneath its protection. The British "Calliope" had all the luck of it; her steam was up, she had Westport coal in her bunkers, and she was able to disregard the rules of etiquette and made .the open sea, steaming out in the teeth of the elements at the rate of one mile an hour. The obstinacy of the American commander and the stupid regard of the Germans for naval etiquette, coupled with the silly jealousies with which each was inspired, appear to have been responsible for the disaster which overtook the American and German ships. The American was the only flagship in the Harbour, and it appears that etiquette requires that the flagship shall move first. Prior to the storm, the German and American boats were ready to rake one another with shot and shell, and both the Germans and Americans —and the British, too, for that matter had done things against the Samoans which would not bear the searchlight of historical jtruth. BEFORE AM) AFTER THE STOEM Indeed, both before and after tjie storm, the Samo.ans had no great reason to love any of the three nations named. There had been times when the British and German gunboats steamed put together to shell villages, destroy homes, and kill the Samoan people—as when, for mr stance, the "Miranda" (British) and the "Hyena" (German) went out in 1884. Then it was said that the two flags floating in unison "could not fail to impress the Samoans." But the shells falling in unison impressed them considerably more. There was at least one instance in which, ihe British and American gunboats having shelled Apia and its neighbourhood, those two champions of the rights of small nationalities were required by a neutral arbitrator (I think he was the King of Sweden) to pay compensation for the damage done. The bombardment took place in 1899, and'the arbitrator's decision was given in 1902. Vailima House was damaged by the shooting, and part of the compensation exacted.was I paid to the then owner. The vegetation now thrusts its greenness with tropical persistence through the rusted ribs of the "Adler's" skeleton. "THE RUFFIANS OF THE OLDER PLAYWRIGHTS" Robert Louis Stevenson has left it on record that of the three nations —America, Britain, and Germany—involved in the smugglings over Samoa and with the Samoans, "not one appears with credit. They figure but as three ruffians of the older playwrights. The United States have the cleanest hands, and even theirs are not immaculate." However,, when the "blackness of midnight" fell in 1889, and the "Olga," "Eber," and "Adler," ' the "Trenton," Nipsic," and "Vandalia," were battered into a tragedy of wreckage, the gallant, and chivalrous Samoans—the people 'on whom the guns of both nations had been turned, the people who were the victims of the trading interests of all nationalities—came down from their hills and freely risked their own lives to rescue their foes. There is no greater thing written into history. One hundred and fifty lives were lost; but that total easily would have been doubled had the Samoans left their enemies to look after themselves. And one writer has told us that when the rescued Americans were subsequently camped ashore, the American commander had to threaten his own men with American guns to protect Hie Samoan women from them! Need there be any wonder that the Samoan has; so little real respect for the white maa? APIA BAY The town of Apia from the beginning has been the main storm centre of the intertribal and political struggles between the natives themselves; ihe trading, political, and international smuggles between the profiteers of America, Britain, and Germany; and on the other hand the inevitable struggles for domination between the three- nationalities (combined or separately) and the natives. Its long whH*fc beach of coral lives in the literature of the South Seas—Robert Louis Stevenson,. Louis Becke, and a multitude of minor writers have immortalised it. To the east the beach runs out to a low point on which the tall cocoanwts attract immediate attention by reason of the variety of leaning postures they assume. This point is named Matautu, and here in ihe roaring days flourished "Black Tom's Hell," pictured by Louis Becke in his island stary, "At the Ebbing of the Tide." Apia Harbour knew "Bully*' Hayes jjerhaps better than many Another South Sea port. Here he came in his armed brig the "Leonora," and it was here that on one occasion he was arrested by the captain of<a U.S. gunboat, on board of which he was tried on charges of victimising the German traders. Of course, Hayes was acquitted; he was not the sort of. buccaneer against whom a. conviction would be easily secured. I Louis Becke has narrated how Hayes celebrated his win by painting jthe. town vermilion, the sailors of Uie American gunboat joining in, and some "flash" Samoans lending a hand. • Hayes's- crew and the American marines were all drunk, and the story of their joint ruffianism still lives. "BRITONS NF.VER-NEVER" We were taken ashore at 9 a.m., General Robin and his Aide, Captain Garland, and other officers meeting us at the wharf. General Robin was Acting-Administrator during the absence of Colonel Tare in New Zealand. In front of the Courthouse we were welcomed by •>, detachment of native Boy Scouts ;and the school children, the latter Ringing "Britons never, never shall-be slaves." Some of us remembered thi Chinese slaves on the aW smiled. 'We smiled again when it was borne in upon us that some of the little singers themselves were'half-kste Chinesechildren whose fathers were slaves perpetuated iunder tha rule of those very same Btitons who} "never, never, etc. The incongruity at it must have appealed to 'every Parliamentarian— with possibly a Cante&urian exception. Next came a "dlftomatic" welcome on behalf of the thief s; then a

BY H. E. HOLLAND, MJP.

THROUGH THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

visit to the Marist Brothers school where some 300 boys are taught, and whose orchestra and choir played and sang excellently. The two clubs opened their doors to us; but I am afraid they were negatively impressed by the Labor members, whose r'eputtaion as abstainers from either hard drinks or tobacco or both was in danger of becoming a byword -and a reproach. At the British Club they treated us to ah atrociously-named, but delightfully-cool and delicious sofj drink, and wanted to know all about our views on indentured labor, and our reasons for opposing it. They assured ;us that the laborers were humanely treated, and Bartram re l plied that it didn't matter if the treat- . ment was the best ever, they still couldn't make it good enough for us to approve the system—that slavery was slavery and nothing could alter that fact. I might digress 'her,e to mention that every Briton and every,. German we met at Western Samoa was in, favour of indentured labor. There were no differences of opinion between the two nationalities on this score. AT VAILIMA HOUSE A party of seventeen was entertained at lunch at Vailima House by General Robin. Seventeen was the full number for which accommodation could. be found; and each day a Similar number was entertained at Stevenson's old home, now Government House. After Stevenson's death Vailima became the property of a wealthy and very philanthropic German. At, his death the German Government secured it and made it the headquarters of the Government. Here Dr. Solf, the most capable Administrator the Samoan Islands have ever had, lived; here D-r. Schulze was housed when the war broke out, and from here he sent his friendly notification to the British residents on the declaration of war—to the -effect that while they made no attempt to disturb the peace tliey would be unmolested and their businesses protected. I met a number" of British citizens who spoke most highly of the treatment accorded them by the Germans while the latte" were in possession, and regretfully of our official Treatment of quae a number of the most decent of the Germans after we came into possession. WIIEItE _TEVE» T SO3f lABOKEKED Vailima House stands at the foot of Vaoa mountain, about three miles from the township; and I venture to say there are few Stevensonians, few readers of the great history that is woven around Vailima, who have not longed for a day to come when ■ hey might stand where Stevenson stood, tread the Road of the Loving Heart, revel in }.he foliage-shadowed coolness of Stevenson's Pool, climb the steepness of Vaea's narrow and winding pathway and at Stevenson's grave pay tribute to Art dedicated to Freedom's, cause! Ours was the privilege. Here came Lady Jersey, wife of the N.S.W. Governor, in 1892, when Mataafa was declared rebel by both British and German authorities; and here was hatched the plot which made it possible for her to visit the j *'rebel" high chief, calling herself "Amelia Balfour, cousin of R. L. Stevenson." What,a fluttering there was in the diplomatic dove-cotes when that little bit of diplomacy on her ladyship's part with the aid of R.L.S. became known! Here Stevenson wrote his Vaflima letters, his brave defence of the Samoans! Here when Ba, r on yon Pilsach and Chief Justice Cedarkrantz (on whose Municipal Government the British Government looked with official approval) robbed the Municipal Treasury to purchase the "Samoan Times," Stevenson famed the historical proclamation which he told Andrew Lang "was never proclamated." Ho"c he shaped the towering righteousness of his own policy towards the natives which led the smaller mind of Sir John Thurston to frame a Queen's Regulation devised to get Stevenson for sedition — that old-tinuv weapon of the tyrant and the betrayer. WHERE HIS LAST FIGHT WAS FOUGHT Here, where the tropical sunshine falls down from the dazzling blue of the far-flung day; here where the murimirings of the softest breeze may oe neard—Jiere on the lofty open balcony, where no wail shuts out the free air of life—ours was the privilege to stand on. the spot where his last great fight was fought —and lost; his last grim battle with Death. Here the great soul of him ceased from its strugglings and joined that vast multitude of the world's bravest who being dead yet speak, and of each of whom it might be sung, even as Wordsworth sang of one who resisted the imposition of slavery on another coloured people over a century agone: "There's not a breath of the common wind That will forget thee; thou hast great allies; Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, and man's unconqjjerable mind." Had he lived—a pity 'tis he died— Stevenson's pen to-day would be thundering his denunciation of the present slavery in the Samoan Islands; the New Zealand Labor Party would have no greater ally in its fight for freedom in Samoa. But, had he lived, it is also easily possible that either German or British manacles would have held his wrists, a German prison or a British dungeon his body. ■ * (To be continued.)

A poor man is ever at a disadvantage in matters of public concern. When he rises tq speak, Or writes a letter to' his superiors, they ask: "Who is this fellow that offers advice?" And when it is known that he is without coin, they spit U'tir hands of him,' and use his letters in the cook's fires. But if it be a man of wealth who would speak, or write, or denounce, even though ,he have the brain of a yearling dromedary, or a spine as crooked and unseemly, the whole city listens to his words and declares them wise.—Li HUNG CHANG (quoted by Upton Sinclair in "The Brass Check").