The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1902-05-16
M'MAhON TELLS
or RECENT TRIP

Although ihs mss.1narr. have
mad. Samoa nsld of action f1r tho
last nty years. did not fee a native
man there who wore rhnts. says =
Maurice Mcmahon. the young poet ~
passion" who has just returned from
German Samoa
The Samoan D.. yet an object of In
ter,st o. tho passing traveller. for the
reason that he secs him dressed as he
was century ago. The native men
etm wear the lawa-laWs, or short
skirt. reaching from the hips 20 the
knees
Mcmahon also found out that the sa-
means we're lazy and disinclined to go
fishing amongst the reefs for their
food. preferring 20 eat the canned goods
furnished from the stores of the Ger
man traders Seldom does the Samoan
have fish as 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 Gsv-
ernor. permitting the white licensee to
use dynamite. when n Samoan has
fish for his dinner it Is generally Sc
cured from this foreign dynamiter.
The Samoans have no musical in
struments and no songs such as 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
n nd uDrLaH saithfnllV He
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 it's sup
port upon the steamers which for
merly called there. and which stop now
only at Pago Pago, the American port
in Samoa. The storekeepers have 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 100000 acres available
for cultivation, and OF this area at least
natives for raising their own foodstuffs.
1t is Mr.. McMahon's opinion that only
about quarter OF a million acres will
be available for lease or sale In the
German possessions.
or the American possessions there
seems to be very little land available
for cultivation. The land is rich and
the cacao grows profusely. From what
hA 1Anr hn hl
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 liz also botherinG
the Samoan planters. The Samoans
will not work. They prefer to keeI
their hair looking nice according to Sa-
moan standards by smearing lime OF
coral over their raven locks. thereby
giving it az 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
OF the chiefs whom he met to take In
ing themselves. for that duty was
turned over to the women. The cere-
mony OF approaching the stranger tC
secure his dirty linen consisted II
smooth talk, the giving of kawa tC
drink, ending with request for the
aforesaid linen.
He did not hear OF many lepers there
One had come to the Island from Ha-
wall and had died, but he found many
natives afflicted with elephantiasis
There was also another disease which
seemed common. This was disease
which broke out in little warts and is
called tontus by the natives. Nearly
all the children are afflicted with 1,
and many adults as well. The passing
away Of the warts generally leaves
scars.