Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-07-07
THE NATIVES OF TAHITI.
Principal Industries of the Island and
Its Great Natural Wealth.

Frankly speaking, It is city of half
castles, the metropolis of the innumer-
able islands which dot the sea within
the radius of a thousand miles. For
\ hundred years and more the sailor
English, French, American-has left
his mark upon his descendants, and
today the process is continued by
foreigners who settle on the islands,
whether their abode is temporary
as in the case with the officials sent
| out from France-or permanent, as
with the foreign planters. Both class
| es, to some considerable extent, mar
ry native wives. In addition to the
shades of color and the varieties of
feature which confront the visitor,
types distinctive and sui generis are
met here and there, notably the So
called Pitcairn islanders, descendants
or the mutineers of the famous Boun-
ty, who ended their lives upon Pit
cairn, that distant rock, isolated in
the midst of the seas.
The Chinese also have left their in
delible stamp. Scattered over the ISL
ends in such considerable numbers as
to form no mean proportion of the
entire population. they represent, per-
haps, the most energetic element of it.
Admitted on license only, and for a
limited term of years, they have
gradually acquired pre- eminence in the
retail business of the colony, forming
the group of middlemen intermediate
between the native and the three trad
ing Observation-Disclosures German
and French-which substantially con-
troll the export and import trade.
In Papeete itself-besides the laun-
dries, which could hardly be expected
to be in other hands-the small shops
are substantially all Chinese, while
throughout the islands generally the
oriental constitutes the recognized
business class. Whenever a collection
Of native plantations is gathered to-
eether. there he wiz be found in the
midst of them, with his little general
merchandise store. He sells his hard
ware and supplies to the native, and,
in return, buys the green vanilla and
''copra," curing the one and drying the
other, and shipping ii by boat or wag-
on to the metropolis, where the trad
ing companies repack and distribute
II.
Passing along the narrow dusty
streets the shaded waterfront of Pa
peete, one encounters this mixture of
races on every hand. Only among the
descendants Of the native nobility and
sprinaling of French and foreign off,
Gals, professional and business men
who control the courts, the banks, the
customs, and the wholesale business
generally, are the exceptions to be
found. Dressed in spotless white lin
en-, these substantial! citizens pass quiz
city to and fro between their cool Of
fees during the four business hours
OF the day, and have accepted the Gus
toms of the aborigines to the extent
that business is not allowed to In
trude upon leisure, nor Is anything
done today which can as well be done
tomorrow. Shops and offices are open
from nine to eleven in the morning
only. and from two to four in the af-
ternoon. -.=-s-
A passing view discovers all evil
dences of the curse common to all
tropical seaports, the presence of d
hundred forms of loathsome disease.
Passing over the commoner sorts which
the sailors brought with them, it is
sufficient to mention one which is typi-
cal of the south seas, the dreaded ele-
phantiasis-the native ''fefe'-sup-
rcsedly due to the presence of germs
in the water of the mountain streams,
and resulting in hideous and repulsive
| swellings of the arms and lower limbs.
| Beneath all the gay current of town
| life-fcr the French have brought their
temperament with them-this subcon-
scious reminder of one damning in
| fuence of civilization is never Icing alb
| sent from the strangers mind.
He thinks it as he sits among the
! laughing crowd at the motion pictures
that single form of amusement which
| the town boasts. He remembers it
upon the festival nights, when the band
plays in the brilliantly lighted square,
and during the "Retraite aux Flam-
beaux' which follows, when the care
free crowd with flaming torches march
es the streets. behind the musicians,
singing their fascinating melody, the
Tahitan national air.
But as Paris is not France-despite
the opinion of good Americans-so
Papeete the business metropolis, is not
Tahiti Out along the palm bordered
shores down the winding coast line,
or upon the other and smaller islands
of the group-at the head of curving
bays, or upon peninsulas running out
into the mirror-like lagoon-the full
blooded native, the pure Maori or
Polyncsian, lives as he has always
done.
Stevenson's letters from Samoa, the
| pages of Pierre Lott picture him as he
is. He is a handsome man. tall, we'll
formed, fine featured, black. yet who'll
ly unrelated to the Negro. His wife
and children are pretty, and no pref
tier than when, leaving the town be-
| hind, they don their simple white
kimonos, and, barefooted and bare
| headed, become a part Of the rural
simplicity about them. They cultivate
their vanilla in the cool of, the day:
they paddle to the reef to fish in their
outrigger dugout canoes: they drive
along the shore to visit their friends.
| Sunday finds them in the nearest dis
trict church for morning service, and
in the afternoon they sing their weird
| songs in the "hhFnini- house" adjoining