A TRIP TO THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13304, 10 October 1906, Page 8

A TRIP TO THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.

" - LIFE. IN SAMOA. ...,, " IMPRESSIONS' OF PROFESSOR J . ; MACMILLAN BROWN. , [BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] .' ' - Christchcrch, Tuesday.? Professor J. Macmillan. Brown has been interviewed upon his return from; a four months' trip to the South i Sea, Islands. Speaking to a Press reporter on the condition of affairs in Samoa under German rule, he said that he was invited to stay at the house of an influential German and, experienced the greatest kindness and. hospitality. "I saw how well Samoa is administered by Dr. Solf, who has been Governor since the island became German. It is admitted to. be the best administered of all the German colonies. Dr. Solf ■ himself learned the art of colonial '.'administration in the British Empire. For a long time he was Consul at Calcutta'. The. result is that there is no', apparent' friction or hitch in the administration, although when one. goes out of the group into; the British colonies one hears of Samoans who have left Samoa for good, and prefer British rule. I heard of no discontent; in Samoa itself, although -I saw individual Germans sometimes treat Samoans with some harshness, as, if they were a black subject race. In contrast to this then? is the fact that a large proportion of the land is still in the hands of the Samoan proprietors, and when leased out to planters produces handsome revenues, and the natives have undoubtedly the look of the aristocracy, of those" islands. The people work only when it strikes- their fancy, and it seems to me that they are engaged in perpetual picnics, but the race is and to die out. "for.nothing sterilises the human race like absolute freedom from work. It looks as if.the race which is 'to take their place is the Chinese. For ? time they introduced " Bismarck ; Archipelago boys and Solomon Islanders, ■' but'.' they were needed in their own islands, in the cocoauut plantations. Every few months, however, in their stead comes in a - shipment from China. -When I was there, a steamer arrived from Swatow with 600 Chinese labourers on board. In the household where I stayed, the nursemaid was a half-castethe "mother a Samoan and the father a Chinaman—and she combined in-a curious way the industry and persistence of her father's race with the luxury and love of ease which belonged to her mother's race. Speaking of the • household, one was struck with the. mongrel character of. the servants. It was a representative household. The cook was a Chinaman, the housemaid; a Bismarck Archipelago boy, and the nurse the halfcaste I spoke of.. None knew the language of the others, and yet I could hear them talk and laugh by the ,; hour in the kitchen. Pigeon English was their esperanto, and pigeon English, is evidently going to.be the language of interchange throughout the whole Pacific. Germans may not learn English, but they must learn pigeon English if they desire to have any communication. with their servants. ===========