第68章 LAUPEPA AND MATAAFA(10)

Under Brandeis,in other words,the king received the second highest allowance on the sheet;and it was a good second,and the third was a bad third.And it must be borne in mind that Tamasese himself was pointed and laughed at among natives.Judge,then,what is muttered of Laupepa,housed in his shanty before the president's doors like Lazarus before the doors of Dives;receiving not so much of his own taxes as the private secretary of the law officer;and (in actual salary)little more than half as much as his own chief of police.It is known besides that he has protested in vain against the charge for Dr.Hagberg;it is known that he has himself applied for an advance and been refused.Money is certainly a grave subject on Mulinuu;but respect costs nothing,and thrifty officials might have judged it wise to make up in extra politeness for what they curtailed of pomp or comfort.One instance may suffice.Laupepa appeared last summer on a public occasion;the president was there and not even the president rose to greet the entrance of the sovereign.Since about the same period,besides,the monarch must be described as in a state of sequestration.A white man,an Irishman,the true type of all that is most gallant,humorous,and reckless in his country,chose to visit His Majesty and give him some excellent advice (to make up his difference with Mataafa)couched unhappily in vivid and figurative language.The adviser now sleeps in the Pacific,but the evil that he chanced to do lives after him.His Majesty was greatly (and I must say justly)offended by the freedom of the expressions used;he appealed to his white advisers;and these,whether from want of thought or by design,issued an ignominious proclamation.Intending visitors to the palace must appear before their consuls and justify their business.The majesty of buried Samoa was henceforth only to be viewed (like a private collection)under special permit;and was thus at once cut off from the company and opinions of the self respecting.To retain any dignity in such an abject state would require a man of very different virtues from those claimed by the not unvirtuous Laupepa.He is not designed to ride the whirlwind or direct the storm,rather to be the ornament of private life.He is kind,gentle,patient as Job,conspicuously well-intentioned,of charming manners;and when he pleases,he has one accomplishment in which he now begins to be alone -I mean that he can pronounce correctly his own beautiful language.

The government of Brandeis accomplished a good deal and was continually and heroically attempting more.The government of our two whites has confined itself almost wholly to paying and receiving salaries.They have built,indeed,a house for the president;they are believed (if that be a merit)to have bought the local newspaper with government funds;and their rule has been enlivened by a number of scandals,into which I feel with relief that it is unnecessary I should enter.Even if the three Powers do not remove these gentlemen,their absurd and disastrous government must perish by itself of inanition.Native taxes (except perhaps from Mataafa,true to his own private policy)have long been beyond hope.And only the other day (May 6th,1892),on the expressed ground that there was no guarantee as to how the funds would be expended,and that the president consistently refused to allow the verification of his cash balances,the municipal council has negatived the proposal to call up further taxes from the whites.

All is well that ends even ill,so that it end;and we believe that with the last dollar we shall see the last of the last functionary.

Now when it is so nearly over,we can afford to smile at this extraordinary passage,though we must still sigh over the occasion lost.

MALIE.The way to Malie lies round the shores of Faleula bay and through a succession of pleasant groves and villages.The road,one of the works of Brandeis,is now cut up by pig fences.Eight times you must leap a barrier of cocoa posts;the take-off and the landing both in a patch of mire planted with big stones,and the stones sometimes reddened with the blood of horses that have gone before.To make these obstacles more annoying,you have sometimes to wait while a black boar clambers sedately over the so-called pig fence.Nothing can more thoroughly depict the worst side of the Samoan character than these useless barriers which deface their only road.It was one of the first orders issued by the government of Mulinuu after the coming of the chief justice,to have the passage cleared.It is the disgrace of Mataafa that the thing is not yet done.

The village of Malie is the scene of prosperity and peace.In a very good account of a visit there,published in the AUSTRALASIAN,the writer describes it to be fortified;she must have been deceived by the appearance of some pig walls on the shore.There is no fortification,no parade of war.I understand that from one to five hundred fighting men are always within reach;but I have never seen more than five together under arms,and these were the king's guard of honour.A Sabbath quiet broods over the well-weeded green,the picketed horses,the troops of pigs,the round or oval native dwellings.Of these there are a surprising number,very fine of their sort:yet more are in the building;and in the midst a tall house of assembly,by far the greatest Samoan structure now in these islands,stands about half finished and already makes a figure in the landscape.No bustle is to be observed,but the work accomplished testifies to a still activity.