LIFE IN SAMOA

Southland Times, Issue 20834, 24 July 1929, Page 8

LIFE IN SAMOA

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS. MR W. H. WOODWARD'S OBSERVA TIONS. “Samoa—its people and customs,” was the subject of an interesting address delivereel by Mr W. H. Woodward at the quarterly luncheon of the Invercargill Chamber of Commerce yesterday. Mr Woodward was a resident magistrate in Samoa for a number of years and in this capacity had many opportunities to study the manners and customs of the Samoans.

Mr C. J. Bradfield, chairman of the chamber, introduced Mr Woodward to members, of whom there were about 40 present. Mr Woodward spoke along the lines of two previous addresses delivered in Invercargill and interspersed his talk with many humorous sidelights on Samoan life. The Samoans, he said, were a laughter-loving, happy people at all times. Many were born comedians who played a prominent part at festivals and all manner of functions. There was the professional jester who would mimic an orator at a meeting, imitating the gestures of the speaker and cutting all sorts of antics to amuse the multitude. Strangely enough the orator appreciated rather than deprecated the fool’s work. It was custom and no offence was taken. On one occasion a sitting of the Court was being held and to the surprise of the whites present a jester disturbed the serenity of the proceedings by cutting the most ludicrous antics and mimicking the speaker. A favourite stunt at a festival would be for one of the number to crow like a steam sireii. They possessed strong lungs and could whoop with a long sustained cry, and as long as one of them could keep the whoop going the others would gather up as much food as they could lay their hands on, but immediately the whoop died down it was a signal for all to stop eating or gathering food at once. They paid much attention to voice production, and the speaker said that for sustaining a note they would outclass the great Caruso himself. Physically and mentally the Samoan was well established, and it was very seldom that a child was born with any imperfection of mind or body. Touching on the marriage customs of the Samoan Mr Woodward said that they were somewhat extraordinary. A delicate point with them was the relationship of the parties about to be married. On no account would blood relationship be tolerated, and if it were discovered after marriage that there was any relationship between the parties, the marriage would immediately be annulled. To avoid this as much as possible the parties were representatives from different villages, and the amusing part about the marriage was that the wooing of a lover was generally done by proxy. A friend of the male would do the wooing of the girl and convey messages and arrange meetings and the marriage ceremony. He would also convey cooked food from the boy to the girl, this token serving as a box of chocolates would in a European love affair. The friend would also arrange the escape of the girl and the pair would be married secretly and face their relations later, when the probable wrath of the parents had been subdued. Quarrels and insults were settled in a unique manner. Much time of the Court was occupied in the settling of insults, and where settlement could not be arrived at much difficulty would be experienced by the police to keep the peace among the villagers. “If I could get the guilty party to say, ‘I take back the insult,’ or some such stateemnt, that was the end of the trouble,” said Mr Woodward. “Once the damage was withdrawn that was the end of it.”

The old, influence of heathen gods still held sway, despite the advance of Christianity. There still remained the worshipping of demons and spirits and ghostly happenings which could not be explained. The speaker quoted from a book by a missionary detailing the ghost visits alleged to have been made in a certain house. Then again just about two years ago there was a great meeting of the Mau one evening and at the back of the building there was a muddy creek. There were several hundred natives present and one white man. They were squatting on the village green talking politics when all of a sudden an apparition appeared. The crowd became terrified and fled, careering across the muddy creek without thought of personal safety. Many were trampled on and nearly drowned and included in those who suffered as the result of the mud bath was the white man who received such a chaffing about the experience that he has not mentioned it since. All he got out of it was a new suit. — (Laughter.) Concluding, Mr Woodward said the talk had been altogether too short, but he hopedthat understanding and sympathy would help to restore the tranquillity of these simple, happy and loveable people.—(Applause.)

Mr J. H. Reed expressed the thanks of the chamber to Mr Woodward for his very instructive and interesting address, and he hoped that on some future occasion they would be privileged to hear more of Samoa. The motion was carried by acclamation.