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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 82

II.—Population and Products

II.—Population and Products.

The Samoans are a handsomer and livelier people than the Tongans, to whom, however, they bear a great resemblance in physique and language; being, in fact, a branch of the same race. page 25 Several authorities are agreed that Samoa is the centre from which the Maori race became dispersed over the Pacific Ocean. As showing the common origin of the different people, and at the same time illustrating the differenciation of language, it may be pointed out that the word Savait (the name of the principal island of Samoa) is identical with Java, whence the Samoans came; with Hawaii in the Sandwich Islands, and with Haapai in the Tonga group. Contrary to the rule elsewhere in the Pacific, the native population of Samoa is believed to be increasing, In 1872, the population was estimated at between 33,000 and 34,000, while at present there are believed to be 35,000 on the Islands. The intertribal wars were formerly the chief means of checking the growth of population, but since the wars have ceased the natural increase has been uninterrupted. The European population is nearly all concentrated on Upolu, at Apia and Fasetootai. The imported labourers and Chinese are also on this island. Appended are particulars of the native and foreign population :—
Samoan 35,000
English 160
German 110
French 4
Imported Polynesians 700
Chinese 24
Americans 12
Total 36,010

The natives wear but little clothing, and are altogether in a very primitive condition. They are all nominally Christians, 27,000 being claimed as adherents of the London Church Mission, 4,000 as Wesleyans, and 4,000 Roman Catholics. Work is their particular abomination, and cricketing their chief delight—as many as 200 a-side sometimes taking part in the imported English pastime. The only industry pursued by the men is the collection of copra, oranges, and bananas. The women are pretty industrious in their household duties, and in the manufacture of tapa (native cloth) and mats, which constitute the wealth of the Samoans. Nearly every woman has a sewing machine, chiefly of American make; many have two—a hand and a treadle machine; and a number of women hire themselves out to the storekeepers to make native dresses. Education is being spread among the people, through the agency of the missions already named. In connection with the London Missionary Society there are 198 boys' schools and 198 girls' schools, with a total of 8,220 pupils. The Bible is the chief reading book in all the schools, and the effect of Christian teaching has been to modify the savage customs and tribal jealousies of the natives, while their morals are also being slowly but surely improved. The Samoan language is most liquid and page 26 musical, well deserving the title of "The Italian of the Pacific." As a people the Samoans are also the most courtly, being the only branch of the Maori race who have an expression (faafetai) for "thanks." There is rich volcanic soil throughout the principal islands of Samoa, and not less than two-thirds of the total area is suited for cultivation. The chief article of export is copra, and the cocoanut trees not only thrive on the coast of Upolu, but grow in luxuriance on elevated plateaux in the interior. Cotton and coffee are also cultivated to some extent—a coffee plantation which we visited on the land of the German Plantation Company being about Soo feet above the sea level. On the same estate there are miles of beautiful cocoanut groves, worked by imported labour. Samoa, and the island of Upolu more particularly, is splendidly adapted for the growth of all tropical products, while the elevated table-lands of the interior are suited for sub-tropical cultivation. Upolu is well watered from the hills, which here attain a height of 4,000 feet—many of them terminating in undoubted volcanic peaks. So far as cultivation is concerned, the edge of the land has only been nibbled at. The German planters have 6,000 acres in cultivation, and there is probably an equal area cultivated by British firms. The German lands referred to have been secured to the purchasers by a treaty negotiated between the German and Samoan Governments on 24th January, 1879. In addition German subjects lay claim to 90,000 acres of land embracing a large portion of the most fertile soil on Upolu; Americans claim 210,000 acres, and the English claims (chiefly those of Messrs. McArthur and Co., of Auckland) reach a total of 235,000 acres, nearly all on the island of Savaii. While there are no direct legal obstacles to the acquisition of land by Europeans in Samoa; such as obtain in Tonga, it will be apparent that real obstacles exist to settlement, most of the available land being already claimed, and even were the claimants willing to sell, the title would be very insecure. To illustrate this, I may instance the land upon which the most valuable property in Apia has been exected—the factory, store, and central offices of the German Plantation Company. This land, situated on Mulinuu Point, was purchased from the native owners (or some of them) many years ago, by Mr. Coe, an American merchant, who at one time acted as United States Consul at Apia. The claim was disputed by certain natives, and for six or seven years the question of ownership was allowed to remain in abeyance. At the end of that time, however, a trial was procured by the then American Consul, and Mr. Coe won on the plea that the counter claimants were illegitimate. With his title thus confirmed, Mr. Coe sold the land to Mr. Weber, manager of the German Plantation Company, but the validity of the title might still be disputed, as according to Samoan law the ousted claimants had undoubted page 27 legal rights in the land—illegitimacy forming no bar to their claim. The French Roman Catholic Mission at Apia own a thousand acres of land to the rear of and in close proximity to the town, which is all cultivated. There are streams of water on Upolu and other islands quite sufficient to supply motive power to saw-mills, etc., and to float timber down from the hills. Over the whole of Samoa there are many valuable timber trees, which were well described in 1873 by Col. Steinberger, a special emissary of the United States Government. Among them are the tamanu, or native mahogany, a good-sized tree, the timber of which resembles cedar; the fetau, with white timber which turns red when exposed, and is hard, heavy, and suited for cabinet work; gatae, a fine large tree, with timber easily worked and suitable for house-building; fau, a valuable hardwood tree, used for making canoes and house-posts, while the fibre from the inner bark is finer and stronger than any other known; maali, yielding slate-coloured wood, hard but light, and suitable for house-building; mamalaca, a large straight tree, with timber white and tough, very suitable for ship-building and repairing; toa (or ironwood), a hard and durable timber; tavai, a good sawing timber, hard, fine, and straight; ifi (or chestnut), light-coloured, straight, and tough timber; faui, a small tree, but yielding light, dry, and easily-worked timber, suitable for building and general purposes; and the anume, a large tree, with very hard and durable timber, suitable for posts, piles, etc. All the trees named are, I believe, to be found in sufficient quantities and in such situations as to render them of great commercial value, and in addition to the local market for timber a large export trade might be developed. The fruits grown on these islands include the breadfruit, pine-apple, lime, orange, vi (Samoan apple), lime, banana, lemon, citron, mango, tamarind and guava, while the indigenous vegetables embrace several varieties of taro, eight distinct species of yam, besides indigo, nutmeg, ginger and pepper—the three last-named not being the articles of commerce, but growing wild. The soil and climate are well suited for the production of tobacco, vanilla, arrowroot, tea and cinchona. Sugar-cane is grown, but chiefly for thatching purposes, while it is occasionally chewed by the natives as food. Of mineral products, so far as is positively known, Samoa is almost utterly destitute. Garnets and opals are found in small quantities in the beds of streams and in crevices of the rocks, and there are believed to be large deposits of magnetic iron. In 1873 the English Consul at Apia took to New Zealand some specimens of auriferous quartz, alleged to have been found near the town by two residents named Bruce and Johnson; but there is considerable conflict of opinion as to the possibility of gold being found in Samoa. The contour of the hills favours the idea that they will prove gold-bearing, but their direction being east and west dispels the impression. Col. Steinberger (whose only fault page 28 in this matter seems to be that "he doth protest too much") declares unequivocally that there are no minerals in Samoa; and Dr. Graeffé, a German scientist, expresses the opinion that there are no minerals of value except iron. On the other hand, Sir Edward Belcher states that upon Rose Island, the most easterly of the Samoan group, there is a quartz dyke composed of micaceous shale; and Mr. Sterndale, who examined the interior of Upolu for indications of valuable minerals, found cliffs of micaceous clay 100 feet high and upwards, and beds of conglomerate similar to those which overlie gold deposits in other parts of the world. Mr. Sterndale, however, could find no quartz, and he agrees with Dr. Graeffé in holding that iron is the only mineral of value to be found in Samoa. I am not competent to say if that opinion is correct, but it goes without saying that, if gold should be found to exist in these islands, it would prove a tremendous stimulus to European colonisation and settlement.