The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 17Stevenson, Robert Louis
History
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 17
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Islands of the Pacific -- Fiction; Samoan Islands -- History; Short stories
placed on copra for the national livelihood. His recruits, even as they
drilled, were taught to plant cacao. Each, his term of active service
finished, should return to his own land and plant and cultivate a
stipulated area. Thus, as the young men continued to pass through the
army, habits of discipline and industry, a central sentiment, the
principles of the new culture, and actual gardens of cacao, should be
concurrently spread over the face of the islands.
Tamasese received, including his household expenses, 1960 dollars a
year; Brandeis, 2400. All such disproportions are regrettable, but this
is not extreme: we have seen horses of a different colour since then.
And the Tamaseseites, with true Samoan ostentation, offered to increase
the salary of their white premier: an offer he had the wisdom and good
feeling to refuse. A European chief of police received twelve hundred.
There were eight head judges, one to each province, and appeal lay from
the district judge to the provincial, thence to Mulinuu. From all
salaries (I gather) a small monthly guarantee was withheld. The army was
to cost from three to four thousand, Apia (many whites refusing to pay
taxes since the suppression of the municipality) might cost three
thousand more: Sir Becker's high feat of arms coming expensive (it will
be noticed) even in money. The whole outlay was estimated at
twenty-seven thousand; and the revenue forty thousand: a sum Samoa is
well able to pay.
Such were the arrangements and some of the ideas of this strong, ardent,
and sanguine man. Of criticisms upon his conduct, beyond the general
consent that he was rather harsh and in too great a hurry, few are
articulate. The native paper of complaints was particularly childish.
Out of twenty-three counts, the first two refer to the private character
of Brandeis and Tamasese. Three complain that Samoan officials were kept
in the dark as to the finances; one, of the tapa law; one, of the direct
appointment of chiefs by Tamasese-Brandeis, the sort of mistake into
which Europeans in the South Seas fall so readily; one, of the enforced
labour of chiefs; one, of the taxes; and one, of the roads. This I may
give in full from the very lame translation in the American white book.
"The roads that were made were called the Government Roads; they were
six fathoms wide. Their making caused much damage to Samoa's lands and
what was planted on it. The Samoans cried on account of their lands,
which were taken high-handedly and abused. They again cried on account
of the loss of what they had planted, which was now thrown away in a
high-handed way, without any regard being shown or question asked of the
owner of the land, or any compensation offered for the damage done. This
was different with foreigners' land; in their case permission was first
asked to make the roads; the foreigners were paid for any destruction
made." The sting of this count was, I fancy, in the last clause. No less
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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