The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-05-15
WEAR NO
| TROUSERS
Samoans HaveNot
Learned Their
Use.
M'MAHON TELLS
OF RECENT TRIP.
Natives Are Too Lazy to Fish and
the Government Licenses
a Dynamiter.

Although the missionaries have
made Samoa a field OF action for the
last fifty years. 1 did not see native
man there who wore pants says p.
Maurice Mcmahon. the young poet Of
passion" who has just returned from
German Samoa.
THE Samoan Is yet an object OF in
terest TO the passing traveller. for the
reason that he sees him dressed as he
was a century ago. The native men
still wear the iawa-lawa. or short
skirt. reaching from the hips to the
knees"
Mcmahon also found out that the Sa-
means were lazy and disinclined to 60
fishing amongst the reefs for their
food preferring to eat the canned goods
furnished from the stores OF the Ger
man traders. Seldom does the Samoan
have fish as a part of his repast. White
men carry on the ancient and honor
able art of securing the deep ocean
for toothsome fishes. and there Is one
license granted by the German Gov
ernOr. permitting the white licensee to
use dynamite. When Samoan has
fish for his dinner IL Is generally Sc
cured from this foreign dynamiter.
The SamoIns have no musical in
strumcnts and no songs such the
people OF the Hawaiian Islands are ac-
customed To. but use the gourd filled
with beans for their dancing. They
chant as Hawaiians do in their meles.
Whenever they work at anything as
for instance Mcmahon found them at
work building a church. they broke into
F.Ns .. FtNfI. 4 .al
went out rowing with a party of ma
tives and during the eight or nine hours
they spent upon the water his COM
panions chanted continuously with the
exception OF about an hour. keeping
time to the strokes OF the paddles.
Mr.. McMahon says that business in
Apia since annexation has been poor /
because the place depended for its sup |
port upon the steamers which for
merly called there. and which stop now |
only at Page Page. the American port !
In Samoa. The storekeepers havee not /
the incomes they formerly had. The /
people are now going in for cacao. The /
land question is yet unsettled. Leases
are only given for short periods. There
are only about 800. 900 acres available
for cultivation. and of this area at least
one-half will have to be left with the 1
natives for raising their own foodstuffs !
II is Mr.. McMahon's opinion that only /
about a quarter of million acres will
be available for lease or sale in the
German possessions.
OF the American possessions there
seems to be very little land available ,
for cultivation. The land is rich and l
the cacao grows profusely. From what |
he learned, the growers believe that
the yield will be twice as great as for
merly. the yield being about nine
pounds per tree. the average per tree
in other countries being about three
pounds.
The labor question is also bothering
the Samoan planters. The Samoans
will not work. They prefer to keep
their hair looking nice according to Sa-
moan standards. by smearing lime of
coral over their raven locks. thereby
giving IL a sunburned appearance.
They grow their own taro and attend
to other minor details of gardening.
but work for another man they will
not.
What struck Mr.. Mcmahon as a
strange thing was the desire OF certain
Df the chiefs whom he met TO take in
Not that they did the wash
ing themselves, for that duty was
turned over to the women. The cere-
nOny OF approaching the stranger TO
secure his dirty linen consisted in
smooth talk. the giving of kawa TO
drink. ending with request for the
aforesaid linen.
He did not hear Of many lepers there.
one had come 10 the Island from Ha-
vail and had died. but he found many
natives afflicted with elephantiasis. !
There was also another disease which
eemed common. This was disease
which broke out in little warts and Is !
allied toutus by the natives. Nearly
III the children are afflicted with IL d
md many adults as well. The passing :
way 81 the warts generally leaves
cars.