AFFAIRS IN SAMOA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9735, 4 February 1895, Page 5

AFFAIRS IN SAMOA.

IMPORTING ARMS FOR THE REBELS.

A MERCHANT FINED.

THE QUESTION OF GERMAN

CONTROL. DISQUIETING RUMOURS. THE FEVER EPIDEMIC. [from our OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Apia, January 24. The one topic of absorbing interest, here during the last month has been the importation of guns and ammunition into Samoa. People here ridiculed the rigorous search of tho cargo of the s.s. Upolu lately made, expressing theii belief that tho suspected consignment of war material had arrived from Sydney by the same vessel on a previous trip. This has proved to be correct, and Mr. Frings, senior partner of j the firm ot Frings and Co., has admitted | having imported a considerable number of | guns and a large quantity of ammunition. The contraband articles arrived by the s.s. Upolu from Sydney in November last, and most of the shipment has been disposed of to the rebel natives of Aana and Atua. Mr. Frings has been fined by the German Consul, he being a German subject, and he has also been heavily fined by the Municipal Magistrate. Further prosecutions are contemplated against some natives, and also Europeans for complicity in the matter, and a charge against Mr. Spatz, the partner of Mr. Frings, is now pending in the Magistrate's Court. The affair has given rise to very general indignation, but it is generally believed that Messrs. Frings and Co. are by no means the only culprits. There are persistent rumours here that in a few months Samoa will pass under German control. Another rumour is that the municipality of Apia is to remain as at present, but that Germany is to control the rest of the country. It is said that there is to be a naval demonstration in May by a combined squadron of warships?, when the natives are to be disarmed. While the rumours are rather conflicting there is a general conviction that developments of an important nature are about to take place, and that these developments will be in the direction of German control. The black boy who was sentenced to death by a mixed German and Samoan Court, recently, tor murder at Mulifanua, was hanged at Vailele plantation, on Saturday last. The execution was carried out) without any bungling or mishap, and the convict met his doom without any apparent dread. The fever epidemic has visited a host of victims since I wrote last, and Apia has never looked so dismal and woebegone as during the last few weeks. As showing the thoroughness and impartiality of the epidemic, I may state that a case that was proceeding, the other day, in the Supreme Court, had to be adjourned sine die, the two plaintiffs being laid up in bed, the defendant and one of his witnesses just feeling the approach of the fever, one of the counsel being still shaky from its effects, one of the assessors suffering a very severe recovery, and Acting Chief Justice Schmidt just seized by the complaint. The epidemic has now spread to Savaii. No previous epidemic here has been so impartial or universal in its attentions. Many of the j places of business were closed for a week.