This book by the well-known writer on African affairs is sub-titled "A Journey to
Samoa and Australasia, 1929" and only eight and a half pages (on Fiji) are strictly
concerned with an ex-colony.
The author had just been awarded a Rhodes Trust Travelling Fellowship for twelve
months which began with visits to the USA (three weeks). East and West Samoa, Fiji,
New Zealand (3 weeks), Australia (1 week) and on to South Africa. We thus have an
account by a blue stocking of 34 of a large slice of the Empire as it was sixty years ago.
Fortunately for the reader there are an introduction and detailed notes by the editor,
Mr. A. H. M. Kirk-Greene, who thus has supplemented the book which was revised by
the author in 1972. The American visit will not be dealt with here nor a brief stop-over
in Hawaii, actually Oahu.
When thinking of the South Seas one recalls the words of Robert Louis Stevenson:
"The first love, the first sunrise, the first South Sea island are memories apart and
touch a virginity of sense". Margery Perham's first island, shared as it happens with
the reviewer's, was Tutuila in American Samoa whose main town is the well-known
Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango). The author lists the coral reef, lagoon,
coconut palms, deep cobalt sea, white breakers and black volcanic rocks but describes
the circular fales (Samoan houses) as mushroom-shaped which seems an odd word;
the notes refer to their rectangular ground plan, again unusual for buildings with
rounded ends. The vessel on which Margery travelled had also the new governor about
to take over this American naval base. He had been well-briefed to ensure that his
dependency must not follow that of nearby Western Samoa where this New Zealand
mandate was in the throes of political strife led by a half-caste agitator.
Pago Pago did not cater for travellers and finding accommodation was the main
problem and accounts for a large portion of her notes amplified with the inauguration
of the new governor and a party for a visiting German warship. It was a wrench for her
to leave "the nearest place to Paradise on earth that I shall ever see". After a most
unpleasant voyage in a small, dirty and over-crowded ship the 70 mile crossing was
made to Apia, capital of Western Samoa. This ex-German colony had been taken over
by New Zealand forces in 1914 and in 1929 was a C class mandate under the League of
Nations.
Apia proved disappointing - Margery's adjectives are dirty, neglected, battered with
decay and inertia to the fore. Even worse were the unhelpful officials and insolent
natives and it was just her luck, when out for her first walk, to stumble on a meeting of
the Mau (not the Mau Mau) who were a rebellious group. Full details of this
simmering uprising are given in the notes with an account of the leader, a
Swedish/Samoan agitator called O. F. Nelson. Although he was now detained in
Auckland he was able to direct the rebellion which proved a tricky problem as no less
than three-quarters of the people belonged to the Mau who refused to pay taxes or
keep the law. The police for their part had strict orders never to let a situation lead to
bloodshed.
The administration had been criticised for years as not being up to the task with
everyone from the Resident Commissioner downwards being the target for severe
criticism. This failure was primarily due to the fact that there was no pool of trained
young men such as our Colonial Civil Service. Margery found that education was
largely in the hands of the missionaries - this was also the case in other places. The
policy of sending New Zealand schoolmasters to teach agriculture to natives was
particularly poor as they probably knew less than their pupils on the cultivation of
taro, coconuts and bananas, their ancestral crops.
A slip occurs in the notes on the death of the unfortunate Revd. John Williams who
was clubbed and "consumed by the natives of Erromanga, new Guinea" which should
be Erromango of Vanuatu. At this time there were one thousand Chinese in Western
Samoa who were brought in as indentured labourers ostensibly on a three year
contract but usually stayed on. As only bachelors were allowed it was only natural that half-caste children were in evidence - always a problem. They are said by the teachers
to be "the sharpest part" at school.
Full marks must be given to our author for a most accurate and interesting account
of the life history and damage caused by the rhinoceros beetle against which
unsuccessful efforts were made to carry out the control measures in use in German
times. Although it was in the natives' own interest to keep plantations clean and
destroy rotten wood in which the grubs mature, this they failed to do, so that the beetle
pest steadily and visibly advanced - to the detriment of the palm fronds and
subsequent crop of copra. As a break in her official duties she was taken to see
Vailima, the home of R.L.S. which she describes as a "low, friendly wooden house
looking over a lawn". The setting and the beautiful flowers cannot fail to make an
abiding picture as the reviewer found was the case some twenty years later.
On her arrival at Suva, capital of Fiji, she found a most desolate port, untidy dock in
desolate land leading to a shabby mostly Indian town with a dirty hotel - her luck must
have been out. However, she did agree that Suva Bay was glorious and was most
impressed by the fine physique of the Fijians. A rather long account is given of her
encounters with government officials; it so happened that a change of governors was
imminent with the Colonial Secretary away on tour. Her refusal to meet the wife of the
acting head of government was neither wise nor courteous. A trip was laid on for her
and she was impressed by the rich tropical vegetation where "vegetable parasites of all
kinds dripped, or mossed, or trailed or hunched themselves about in growth". A visit
to a boys' government boarding school was made with the Director of Education but
on arrival there was not a soul there as all the pupils were busy planting taro. Their
deep, harsh voices sang with great energy Fijian and Maori songs - the latter seems
most unlikely as they had plenty of their own.
Next on her itinerary were the huge crushing mills of the Colonial Sugar Refining
Company which provided schools for the children of the Indian cutters most of whom
turned out under questioning to want to be schoolmasters. Later she visited Fijian
schools where the pupils were more cheerful than the Indians. On her return to Suva
she asked officials if the adaptable, clever Indians would not gain over the easy-going
communal Fijian, they assured her that the Colonial Office will see to that and will
protect the Fijian - if only this could have come about! Margery realised this
intractable problem and hoped if the Fijian can stick to his land and learn to develop it,
perhaps he will be safe. She concludes by saying the future of Fiji and of Indian and
Native is still open to question, one I cannot try to answer. In the footnote for this part
it is noted that the Indians are given as 60,000 for both the years 1917 and 1921 - the
latter is correct.
One appreciates what a task this whole visit must have been for here was a woman
on her own making detailed enquiries on a semi-official basis and having to be
entertained by the very people about which she had to comment, not always in
flattering terms.
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