ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1931, Page 7

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

DETAILS OF LIFE IN-,SAMOA. A PERSONAL MANUSCRIPT. In the year 1592 Robert Louis Stevenson was in Auckland, and Mr. W. H. Triggs, then a young journalist and now a member of the Legislative Council, was spending a holiday there, when he was met by his friend L. H. Balfour Wilson, a cousin of Stevenson, who asked him if he would like to see the writer, who was on his way back to Samoa, after having spent some time in Sydney. He gladly accepted, met Mr. Stevenson, and, as one result of the interview, wrote an article on Stevenson’s life in Samoa. Wishing to havg Stevenson’s approval of what ho wrote, before publishing, he sent the article to him, asking him if he would point out any inaccuracies or delete anything h© thought should not be published. Instead of doing this, Stevenson returned the article, together with twelve closely written quarto pages of annotations and supplementary' information. This was written to his dictation by his amanuensis and signed by Stevenson. In forwarding the budget, Stevenson wrote a long letter in explanation of what he had done. , These notes enlarged on Stevenson’s life in Samoa, on the ways of Samoans, and so on, and have now been presented to the Turnbull Library, Wellington, by Mr. Triggs. Two or three years ago the Balfour Wilson above-mentioned came to the Turnbull Library, and asked if the library would care to have an autographed copy of the first edition of Stevenson’s “Inland Voyage.” It was a copy which Stevenson had inscribed, and presented to Mr. Wilson, his cousin. Mr. Wilson said that the book had once nearly been burned, and ho thought that before the book really was lost it would be better to put it in a place of safety. The book was gladly accepted- —its market value at that time without any autograph being about £2O. Stevenson’s annotation on Mr. Trigg’s article are so interesting that it i° worth while making a few extracts from them. In parentheses is given briefly the substance of the passages in the original manuscript which elicited Stevenson’s comments.. A rather disparaging description of Apia, stressing the small inducement to a popular author who had to keep in touch with the English-speaking public all over the world to make it his home. The bright spots in the picture were the arrival of the mail steamer once.a month and a small public library. With Mr. Stevenson, it was added, it was purely a question of health. He had tried previously nearly every part of the world reputed to favour recovery from his disease (tuberculosis). Stevenson comments as follows:— “Certainly if this were all I would prefer to go to hell. Nor was it purely an affair of health. Honolulu suited me equally well. I chose Samoa instead of Honolulu, for instance, for the simple and eminently satisfactory reason that it was least civilised. Anyhow, I conceived that it is awfully fine. “As for the library, it was begun to a not inconsiderable extent from duplicates and discards from my own over-flowing-one. My own library was brought put-from England. (Note by the amanuensis: ‘Mr. Stevenson’s own library fills the shelves of two large rooms from floor to ceiling.’) (A reference to his cruise in the Casca.) Stevenson’s comment: “I made on© cruise for my health; I made two others for the fun of the thing. The first cruise was in the. yacht Casca, and lasted a year. The second in the 64-ton trading schooner Equator, and lasted six months; and the third in the trading schooner Janet Nicholl, about four months.

(Several typographical inaccuracies.) Stevenson’s comment: “My dear sir, you have got into such a devil of a tangle about the way to my house that I have a difficulty in knowing how to put you right. One part of the road which you seem to have ridden is good; and it does lie through plantations, although not through thick ones. Get past that, and you come to a road that is not a road at all, and to bush that is only new this year, being cleared in patches. You will at best understand the position best when I tell you that all the wood to build my house was carried about a third of the way on men’s shoulders, and that all the stores and parcels are brought by pack saddle. We have a couple of old Auckland tramcar horses —a most excellent selection, the biggest and handsomest horses on the island. You can See them coming up through the forest,‘with its tall trees, lianas, wild pineapple, etc. The Sydney Civil Service Co-operative Society —our universal provider—are always most attentive to Donald and Edie, whose tonnage they have accurately gauged, and pack accordingly.”