DOWN IN SAMOA.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 234, 6 November 1914, Page 8

DOWN IN SAMOA.

DOINGS OF THE RAILWAY ENGINEERS. | [Written for the "Railway Officers* Advocate" by a member of tbe Samoan Expedition.] You will have read accounts of our journey across to Samoa and of our landing and occupation of the island. Therefore I will give you a lew of my experiences after we landed. Soon after we got ashore our platoon —No. I—was marched inland for about a mile. We were halted for a little, while our officer went forward to pick out a camping place. He soon came back, and we were taken a quarter of a mile further on to a prison, where we took up our quarters. Two picquets under Lance-Corporals McKellar and Wilson were posted along the roads in the vicinity. As it was now about five o'clock, the remainder of the prison guard got ready for tea, which consisted of bully beef, hard biscuits, and tea. The boys were hungry, and did ample justice to the meal. When we had satisfied the inner man we went exploring our new home. The place we were in was an acre or so in extent, and was surrounded by a 12ft. galvanised iron fence.

Chinese Prisoners. There were two concrete gaol houses, a mad house, a wooden dwelling house, and a cook house. The gaols are strongly built, and give one the impression that it would be hard for anyone to escape from them. There were about forty prisoners, mostly Chinamen, in the cells. There are from five to prisoners incarcerated in each of the cells, which are absolutely devoid of furniture. The mad house, a peculiarlooking place, is surmounted by a thatched roof. The walls, if you could call them such, are composed of strong wire netting stretching from the eaves to the ground, a distance of ten feet. This place contained some four or five Samoan lunatics. They, too, were not supplied with furniture. The dwelling house, a small place of three rooms, stood high off the ground after the fashion of most European houses in Samoa. One room was occupied by the German official in charge of the prison, another was used by the Samoan policemen. The third was used as a storeroom.

Husking Cocoanuts. The cookhouse was a very primitive affair, where Chinese prisoner cooks prepared meals for the other prisoners. By the way, they get only two meals a day, consisting of biscuits and rice, then very little of that, because they cause trouble if they are well fed. At the back of one of the - gaol houses is the gallows, where three men. can be hung at the same time. lam told that it is a great time when a hanging is taking place, the people round about taking an intelligent interest from various vantage points in the neighbourhood, such as house tops, cocoanut ■palms, etc. The gallows is getting rather stiff to work, as it has not been used for three years. Altogether; it is one of the strangest places you .ever saw—gaol houses, mad houses, gallows, etc., all bunched together in the one yard. In fact one of our men remarked tfrat this was not the kind of gaol he had been used to. When we had finished our survey of the place, our officer told us that we could have some cocoanuts, of which there was a large heap in the yard. These are not like the cocoanuts as we get them in New Zealand, ds they have to be husked. The husk is a fibrous covering, 'which has to be removed before you can get to the milk, and hard work we found it, too; so we got some Chinese prisoners on the job. They were kept busy for the next half-hour, till we had drunk our fill. Les. had a prisoner for three-quarters of an hour doing nothing else but husking cocoanuts, and even then he said he was thirsty. It couldn't have been the stuff he was used to. When we were satisfied we unrolled our blankets and lay down to sleep on the verandah of the house. I can tell you the boards felt pretty hard, but we were better off than some others, who had to sleep on concrete. Our two picquets had a rough time for the first few days, as they had no protection from the heavy rains which fell during the night. Despite the hardness of our couches we slept until six o'clock, when we were awakened. \am afraid the men did not trouble much about washing, as we had neither soap nor towels just then. A Row In the Prison Yard.

• About seven o 'clock the Chinese prisoners were let out into the prison yard for exercise. They seemed quiet enough for a while, until they began to stir things up and set on to the Samoan policemen who were guarding them. "When our men on the verandah saw some thirty or forty Chinamen tackle four or five warders they thought there was going to be trouble, so they slapped on their bayonets and shoved their safety catches forward so as to be ready to join in. But we soon saw that our assistance was not required. The coolies threw cocoanuts and sticks at the policemen, and for a few minutes the air was thick with flying missiles. The warders threw themselves on to the Chows, and quickly beat them into submission. One warder chased a prisoner with a spade, but did not eatch him. In a few minutes there were bruised and battered Chinamen lying round the yard. Two were taken to the hospital next day. The rioters were packed back to their cells, and did not get any more exercise that day.

The guardians of the peace in Samoa do not carry firearms or batons, but depend on their fists, which they can use with some effect. I am not exactly sure what caused the Chinamen to play up. Some say that the prisoners, knowing that the British had taken possession of Samoa, refused to obey the Samoan policemen because they wore the German uniform. Others say that it was owing to some troublo between them and ft young Hamoan prisoner who was undergoing a sentence of six months' for killing three Chinamen. When the troublo was over we unfixod our bayonets and. wit down to breakfast. ' A Fight with Knives. After break Punt wo nmdo the acquaintance of mi eccentric inniato of the madhouse. He was a fnirly well educated native missionary, and had boon well respected by his lloclc before ho wont mad. He was quite harmless, and was allowed to roam, round the yard. He quickly mado frionds with tho soldiers. He was a particularly good friend of Ted 'a, who was introduced to him as fSftkarijiii, a missionary

land. The missionary was able to read and write English And Samoan, and taught us a number of Samoan words, both good and bad. He kept the lads amused all the time we were in the prison by his quaint sayings and peculiar antics. The day passed quietly enough until six ofclock, when we heard & great row in one of the houses at the back of the gaol. Our officer, Lieutenant Lucy, and Sergeants Mulaney and Matheson, together with some Samoan policemen, went round to investigate. They found the trouble was in one of the Government boarding houses, which housed a large number of indentured coolies. The Ghinamen were having a fight amongst themselves; -some were using knives. Our men soon quelled the row and locked the refractory coolies in some pf the rooms. I believe it was a great sight to see big Charlie

throwing the Chinamen about. Commandeering Horses. The next day nothing of note happened until about 2 o 'clock in the afternoon, when I was sent out in charge of three men to get horses. We were instructed to take German and Chinese horses, but not Samoan. That was .a job that suited us, and we set off highly pleased at being off on our own account for a little while. It was a swelter.ing hot day, fyut the cocoanut palms, banana trees, bread fruit trees, and innumerable other tropical trees which grew along the roadside, sheltered us somewhat from the heat.

We had not got more than half a mile before we bagged our first horse; he was tethered to a cocoanut tree by the roadside. After critically examining him, we decided that he would do. When the Chinaman to. whom it belonged. grasped the situation he commenced to tell us all its faults. I never knew that it was possible for a h6rse to be alive and suffer so many ailments as this' Celestial owner accused his of having. I told him it was all right, gave him. a receipt, and our little party moved On in search of further game. We made enquiries from some Samoans (who, by the way, hate the .Germans like poison), and found that there were some German horses grazing in a paddock a little further on. We went along and commandeered the two | horses we found there. We did not trouble to find the owner to give him a receipt. I suppose he. will be wondering where his horses have gone to. One of them was an old racehorse which had been imported from Auckland some years ago. While we were busy cutting up rope to make halters for our captures a Chinaman rode by. I told Jiim to stop and get off. He stopped but did not get off. I flashed my rifle round on him, and he got off in a hurry. We had a look at his mount, but decided that it was no good, so we took his bridle and saddle, and sent him packing.. We now-had three horses and a bridle and saddle.

We put the saddle and bridle on one of the nags, which one of the party promptly mounted. After retracing our footsteps for about a quarter of a mile, we turned off a by-road, along which we travelled for half a jnile till we came to a German farmhouse. We made our intentions known to the owner, who was very nice to us,, considering the nature of oul- errand. He showed us round his place, and we picked out the best horse we could see. After being fitted out with a fine Mexican saddle, some bridles and saddle cloths, we gave the Qerman a receipt for what we took, and set off back to the camp. We arrived back Without mishap, and delivered up our captures.

FOOD FOR BRITAIN AND BELGIUM FUND.

The following additional donations have been received by the Ashburton Committee of the Britain and Belgium Relief Fund: —Labour Day Patriotic Demonstration (per Ensign Hosking) £B6 11/8, C. J. Harper £5, Mrs T. Dalton £1 1/-, Miss F. Dalton and R. Dalton 5/cach. Total to date, £1642 4/4. At a meeting of the directors of the Alpha Cheese Factory, German Bay, it was decided that a gift of half a ton of cheese be made to the Poor of Britain, Ireland; and Belgium Fund. MALVERN SUBSCRIBERS.

The following arc the* Malvern County (Sheffield Riding) subscribers to the Poor of Britain, Ireland, and Belgium Relief Fund: —Geo. 11. Judd (third donation) (10 wethers) £l2 13/9, Alex. Fraser (second donation) £1 10/-, Geo. Htfriim £l, Miss A. E. Colthart £1 1/-, Mrs Clara Long £2 10/6, Mrs Martha Askew 5/-, Tony Barbour 2/6, A. D. Budge £l, Mrs Arthur Henry 10/- ? Mr Arihur Henry £l, J. E. RodgerS £l, Wm. Adfcins £l, Waddington Cricket Club £2 10/-, John Watson 10/-, Mrs D. Henry 11. Mcllraith, jun. (second donation) £l,;ir. H. Mcllraith 5/-, F. Bull (fourth donation) (5 sacks wheat) £5 8/-, W. J. Baxter (third donation) (6 sheep) £7 E. Jenkins (second donation) £5, Win. Arps (pig) 15/-, T. S. Innes £4, A. E. Gill £2 2/-, H. Anderson (potatoes) 7/lj ?J. .Gemmell (linseed) £1 5/-, J. Gilmoitr £1 1/-, J. Odgers £l, Mrs Howarth 10/-, F. W. Compton £5, G. A.' Watson (pig) 14/3, Wm. Watson (pig) 15/9, Fred. Searle £2, Mrs F. Searle£2, John Seitrle £l, Miss Searle 10/-, Miss Harriet Searle 10/-, Geo. Bradsliaw (grass-seed) £l3lO/6, A. McDonald (second donation) Jas. Duncan 10/-, 11. Ferguson £l, Geo. F. Wright (second donation) (5 sheep) £6 10/-, C. E. Wroth £l.l/-, Cash (Sheffield sale)' £1 5/6, H. C. Townshend (second donation) £3 17/3, Wm. Lilley (oats) £2 17/6, J. Ferguson £l, S. Hight AO/-, QMh .Caqfigna ionation^

.£ s. d. Amount previously acknowledged .. .. ..31,673 13 11 Proceeds butter per, Farmers' Co-op. • 1 9 : 2 Proceeds honey Little River 1 10 4 R.H.W. (Belgium) ..; 5 0 0 Anonymous 1 5 0 Christchurch Working - Men's Club Patriotic, dramatic, and Vaudeville Committee (2nd instalment) 8 0 0 Collected at Pigeon Bay by John Pettigrew .. 30 "7 0 Per J. B. Merrett —Miss Gwen. Ashbolt (sale of .rabbit) 10/-, Mr King (sale of bantam) 12/-, Miss Tully '(sale of eggs) 5/-, Mr Barrett 1/9 1 8 9 Employees Suckling Bros. Money Box 10 7 8 Employees Whitcombe and Tombs's, Colombo Street Works (2nd contribution) 10 0 0 E.S. (Belgium) 1 0 0 Teachers South Belt School (one day's pay) 1 3 0 Rangiora District (2nd in17 6 stalment) 106 Kaiapoi Woollen Co. Warehouse Staff ' ' 2 17 11 Employees Skelton, Prostick and Co. (7th donation) .. 3 10 7 S. W. Hayes .. .. 1 1 6 Miss Mary Pratt 5 0 0 Sale of flowers 0 1 0 Total to date .. £31,869 13 4