OUR SAMOAN LETTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8196, 6 March 1890, Page 6

OUR SAMOAN LETTER.

[from our own correspondent. • - - Apia, February 24.

We are having an abnormally web season, the greatest rainfall for years—2o inches in fifteen days. For two days the stores were closed on i account of rain ; arid gusts J of wind. { ■: This 'is a fair index; of business. Our merchants are doing nothing at all, and those with heavy stocks must be losing. The "harbour is deserted, both American and .German men-of-war being at Pagopago. : They have a standing rule to go out ,of Apia whenever the glass , falls to . a certain point, and both have been absent for some time. »~ - ;

King- Malietoa lately issued a proclamation i notifying that the Chinese Exclusion • Act), in force nere a;; few years ago, before his deportation by the » Germans, is still in force, and that all Chinese lately arrived in Samoa will have to quit the country within this year,; or be/liable to a . fine of 200 dollars and be sent back to their own country. The - proclamation also ;•; notifies Hawaiian residents '■;> to ?.i the v same effect. What will be the outcome of this decree is doubtful, and already the ! Hawaiian who were not included in the Act formerly are murmuring. Between the Hawaiian and Samoan people the greatest friendship has hitherto existed,>and the feeling here is that the king has been rashly advised in ordering Hawaiians to withdraw, from Samoa. iAt present there are only a few of that nationality! here, and their going or staying would not make the slightest social or political difference. Asi, the great fighting chief of the Malietoa party, and who was deported by the Germans, and accompanied Malietoa round the world, has had the misfortune to blow off almost the whole of his right hand by the careless use of dynamite. ;:-- The chief was fishing at the time, and was in '. the ■ act of throwing a cartridge into the water to destroy the fish when it exploded and severely wounded him. Asi is in the prime of life, and was regarded before his deportation, as the beau ideal of physical strength and beauty. He feels the loss of his hand very acutely, the more so that Vhe made himself most obnoxious , to the Germans through his devotion to Malietoa, and for that sufferedi imprisonment, and now he loses : bis hand through disobeying the King's order, the use of dynamite for fishing being strictly forbidden though not followed. ':■■;■ ''. '

;, Mr. L. Stevenson left here last trip by the Lnbeok for Sydney. Before he went he entertained the Apians by relating his reminiscences in the Eastern Isles 01 the Pacific.: As a lecturer he was not a success, though he speaks fluently, and has confidence. Votes of thanks were proposed and seconded by the German ConsulGeneral, Dr. Steubel, and by the American ; Consul, Mr. Blacklock, but the English Consul, as usual, was conspicuous by his absence. Mr. Stevenson stated that he was soon to return to Samoa, and would then permanently reside in Apia. •' ■ Everyone here is on the tiptop of expectation, and all anxiously awaiting the arrival of the mail news from San Francisco, which *is due here to-day. Now that the treaty 1 is ratified by the Senate, we want to know the terms, and of these we are entirely in the dark. Mr. Kinloch Cooke, who the press state is nominated to the Chief Justiceship of Samoa, has been here formerly, about 14 years ago," and was for some time in Fiji under Sir Arthur Gordon. Mr. Kinloch Cooke will be remembered as the writer of a very able article on 3araoa which appeared in the London Times last . year. ■.].■■-. Building is at a standstill and carpenters are all out of work, as. also are the shipwrights. Several buildings are projected, but will not be started until the wet season 1 is over, which will be after next month. The harbour is deserted, the Wainui being the only vessel in port. The United States Iroquois is expected daily, being now overdue,; but she may have-been detained at the Gilbert Islands on her way here from San Francisco. '

The natives are all waiting, like the whites, the news from America. Food is in abundance, and they are taking advantage of this fact and the weather to do no work of any description. , Suatele, erstwhile commander of Tamasese's fighting contingent, wrote to Malietoa last week: asking permission to come and live at Apia, and the king sent him word that he would be very pleased to see him reside there, but he thinks that Suatelo had better live for a time at Matautu, close to Apia, : until Suatele's people, the Tuamasaga, who are ; Maliotoa's ' supporters, have Become completelyreconciled to him'..