NEWS FROM SAMOA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10019, 4 January 1896, Page 5

NEWS FROM SAMOA.

[WOM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.!

Apia, December 26. Business here has reached such a low ebb, and prospects are so gloomy that the people are getting desperate! and many of them openly talk of throwing off all submission to the Treaty Powers, and taking tho administration into their own hands. I have little doubt that unless some effort is shortly made by England, Germany, and the United States to remedy the deplorable oondition of tilings which now exist, some action will be taken, perhaps unwise in itself, but which will certainly have the effeofc of causing something to be done. At present efforts aro being made in a moderate and legitimate manner to obtain some amelioration. A committee was formed, which drew up a series of resolutions prefaced by a lengthy preamble. These resolutions directed attention to the fact that the Samoans contribute nothing to the cost of government; that the whole burden is cast upon the scanty white population ; tho salary of 5000 dollars per annum paid by a municipality of only 160 taxpayers to the president of the Municipal Council is an intolerable burden. The resolutions declared that President Sowmidt as an official was a failure, demanded his recall, the abolition of the office, and that, failing compliance with these demands, stronger measures were threatened. These resolutions were carried unanimously at a public meeting, which reallyconsistedof thewlioleuommunity of foreign residents. A committee was appointed to arrange with the Municipal Council to forward the memorial to the Treaty Powers. The committee roquested tho councillors to meet them, but the councillors thought the proper course was for the committee to attend a regular meeting of the Council, or haven special one called. The committee thought otherwise, in view of the resolutions affecting the President. Popular feeling was with the committee, and so strongly was the feeling expressed that four of the six councillors resigned. Messrs. Cnrruthers and Beckmaun, the two remaining councillors, were then formally requested to resign. Instead of doing so, they called a special meeting of the Council, when a resolution was unanimously passed, not only practically endorsing all that the memorial contained, but adding the Chief Justice as an official to be retrenched The President himself suggested this addition, mid expressed sympathy with the movement, though, naturally, he does nob endorse the reflections on himself. What the Consuls, who sits as a revisory board on tho measures passed by the Municipal Council, will do with this resolution is as yet unknown. In the meantime the new elections are pending, Christmas Day, except for one thing, passed off with extreme ijuietnoss. The exception was a most alarming oarthquako shock at 1030 a.m. It was far more severo than any which has ever been felt in Apia, Many people were almost paralysed with coustornation.

A perfect mania for large boatbuilding bus seized the natives. The competition for the possession of the largest craft is being carried to extraordinary limits. Boats from 40 to 70 fi'et in length are comparatively common. There is one of 100 feet in length, another of 110 toet, while a third i;! now being built no less than 200 feot in length, which will pull upwards of 100 oars! Mr. Thomas Maben, Surveyor-General of Samoa, and formerly Seoretary of State, has left after a residence hereof 11 years, After a short stay in Fiji, ho goes un to Auckland, and thence probably to the Solomon Islands. Before he left he was entertained at dinner and at a social evening, when he was the recipient of very high compliments. The Alameda on her last trip here from Auckland brokf. the record. She dropped anchor at half-past seven a.m. on Wednesday, Ueceinbor 4th. This is the smartest run ever made from Auckland to Apia.