The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-05-10
Ap1A AND SAMOAN BELLIES.

APIA AND SAMOAN BELLIES.
 There are few prettier tropical town
 ships than that of Apia, owing to its
 silvery beach of coral sand, shaded by
 cocoanut palms, the calm waters Of Its bay flashing in the sunshine Tn tront,
 and the fringe of houses embowered in
 tropical trees forming middle back
 ground. while a succession of broken
 hills close it in behind, rising from
 twelve to fiftee nhundred feet above the
 sea At the foot of one of these hills
 stands the house built, for his own resi-
 dence by the late R. L. Stevenson the novelist. and his grave and monument
 are at the top, on level spot overlook
 ing the bay A sngulary romantic
 road leads through the little valley in
 which Stevenson's house stands inland
 toward the center of the island, where | the lake, filing the basin of an extinct
 crater, affords an excellent example
 both of the scenery and vegetation of | the island.
 There are perhaps no finer specimens of the true Polynesian race than the Samoan natives, both in physique and general intelligence. Both men and women are tall powerful and finely
 proportioned. The girls when young are generally pretty, and nearly always
 handsome in figure and even the sin
 gular golden brown tint of their com
 plexion is considered by many rather
 to increase than to detract from their
 charms. Fortunately for the women very little manual labor Is required to supply food in Samoa, as what there is to do falls generally to their share. This consists mainly in planting sweet potatoes, yams, and taro-the great water lily of the Pacific-the root of which forms one leading article of con- sumption; and also in preparing the ripe cocoanut for drying in the sun, and so producing the "copra" of com merce In this latter task they are as- sisted by the boys and lads, the men reserving themselves for the more im- portant pursuits of war. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that the Samoan is quar- elsome; on the con- trary, in his original condition, before civilization undertook to improve him.
 fighting was comparatively rare, and was usually confined to the occasion of the accession of a successor to the High Chief of one or other of the islands It is indeed much more than doubtful whether outside interference has in any way improved the native condition of Samoa; and it may be questioned whether the thin veneer of either Chris tianity or civilization has not been dearly purchased by new vices, and disturbed conditions. which were uh- known in the good old times.
 Samoa will never form any consider able center of trade. At present Apa is used by the German company as an entreport for their island trade in | copra, and the sai1ie company has also made some experiments in the cultiva- tion of coffee, tobaco and spices, on | what is known as the German planta- | tlon, where the recent attack was made | on the American and British sailors. It ! should be remembered, however, that, as respects general trade, and even cuIti- vaton by individuals. the settlers of | American and British nationality have much larger interests in Samoa than | Germany It is true that there are | nearly four hundred Germans, scarcely | three hundred British subjects, and hardly two hundred American citizens in the group; but while nearly all the | Germans are servants of the foreign company, and more or less temporary residents, the men of the other two are in the true sense of the word settlers in the islands.
 The contest which has assumed so acute shape of late is no new thing. Ever since Godeffroy t& Co., the of the present Berlin chose Apia as the most suit able place for central collecting depot for the island produce obtained from a number of groups, they aspired to the of the islands of Samoa. The fact of there being an English mis- sion and a few British residents was the first obstacle, which was after wards accentuated by an influx of Americans, and this has always been preserves. To this undoubtedly is as poaching on the German 'wing the present conflict; and it is to he essential bitterness of feeling which las always existed between the repre- entatives of the company and the sett- CTS of other nationalities, and which. t is safe to say will continue to exist IS long as the triple protectorate con- inues, that the secret acts of hostility 'n the part of German subjects are to ,e attributed.-H. H. Lusll in Golfers Weekly.