APIA HARBOUR

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2248, 7 September 1914, Page 6

APIA HARBOUR

The description of Apia Harbour, which follows, •is taken from Robert Louis Stevenson's brochure, ."A Footnote to History":— "The so-called harbour of .' Apia is formed in part by the Tecess of the coast line at Matcmtu, in part by the slim peninsula of Muliuuu, and in part by the fresh waters of the Mulivai and the Vaisingalio. The barrier reef—that singular breakwater that .makes so much of the circuit of Pacific Islandsis carried far to sea at Matautu and at Mulinuu; inside of these-.two horns it runs sharply landward, and between it is burst or dissolved by the fresh water. Tho shape of-the inclosed an-, chorago may be compared to a highsliouldered jar or bottle with a funnel mouth. Its sides arc- almost everywhere of coral; for the reef not only bounds it to seaward- and forms the neck and mouth, but 'skirting about the beach it forme the bottom also. , "Aβ in tho bottlo of commerce, tho bottom is re-entrant, and tho shore-reef runs prominently forth into the basin and makes a dangerous cape opposite the fairway bf the entrance. Danger is therefore on all hands. Tho entrance gapes three cables wide* at the narrowest, and the formidable eurf of the Pacific thunders both outside and in. There are days when speech is difficult in the chambers of shore-side houses; days when no boat can laud; days when men are broken by 6troko of sea against the wharves. As I write these words, three miles in tho mountains and with the land-breeze blowing from tho island summit, the sound of that vexed harbour hums in my ears. Such a creek in my native coast of Scotland would scarce bo dignified with, the mark of I an anchor in the chart; but in the favoured climate of Samoa, and with the mechanical regularity, of the winds of the Pacific, it forms, for ten or eleven months out of the twelve, a safe, if hardly a commodious port. Tho illfound island traders ride. there with their insufficient moorings the year through and discharge and aro loaded without apprehension. Of .danger, when it comes, tho glass gives timoly warning; and that any modern warship, furnished with tho power of steam, should have been lost in Apia belongs not eo much to nautical as to political history.,' Callola. —: A crown land of Austria, bounded E. and N. by Russia, S. by Bakovina and Hungary, and W. by Austrian and Prussian Silesia. It has an area of 30,293 jquaro nn'les, and is the largest Austrian province. It has the severest climate in. Austria. Galicia had in 1900 a population of 7,285,533, which is equivalent to 241 inhabitants per square mile. The two principal na> tionalities aro the Poles (45 per cent.) and the Ruthenians (-12 per cent.). Tho principal towns aro Lemberg and Cracow. Diest is a small town in the province of Brabant, Belgium, situate'd on tho Demor, at its junction with tho Bever. It has a population of over 8000. It lies about half-way between Hasselt and Louvain, and is ono of the fivq fortified places in BDlci'"n. ' It contains manv breweries. '••■•. • ■