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LIBER'S NOTEBOOK

In Stevenson's Samoa. It has recently been "Liber's" "ood fortune to visit Samoa and to spend n few haurs'.at Vailima, where Hobcrt Louis Stevenson lived for some years, and. where,-in December, 1891, he died, to tho great grief of tens of thousands of. his admirers in Great Britain, America, and Australasia. A few notes on my visit may be of interest to readers of this column:;. A pleasant motor nde -through the tropical forest at the back of Apia was broken by a brief visit to the London Missionary Society's Girls' Boarding School at Papautu. Here the New Zea-land-,-visitors were, charmed with the singing- of.a Samoan'-sour, which seems to have become popular - risht..through the islands. "0 Tofa, ma feleni" (Goodbye, my friends), and with the exceedingly tasteful floral decorations of the hall:' Tho gorgeous crimsons of tho hibiscus, the delicate yellows of. the frangipanni, and the mingled colours of half a dozen other tropical flowers must make the task of decoration ill ' the South, Seas fairly easy, but these S'aiiioan girls exhibited a special, eyo for effective contrasts in. the way'they used the brilliantly-hued blossoms. Leaving the school grounds, the visitors were pelted in their motors with hibiscus blooms, sprigs of _ iasmine, stephanotis, gardenia, and frangipanni boincr also favoured. ' Vnilima ones venchert, most* of the pnrty tackled the. stiff climb up Mount Vnea, a forest-clad hill, on the summit of winch lie the mortal remains of 7U/.S. Hats mid cflats were left at the bottom of the hill bv the picturesonely-situnted bathing pool, in the icy cold waters of' which, at the base of a prcttr waterfall, the -inmates of Vailima in Stevenson s <lay dnily besnorted themselves. It .is a terribly stiff null to the summit along a rough bush track. No sunlight penetrates the dense forest, and the moist, heat assists in making the trip more ot a penance than a nleasnre. thonsh as an antidote to corpulence Bantinp s famous course would not lie in it. And tho visitor wonders however even tho sixty wM ' heftv Samoans carried up the cpttin holding the remains of their much-beloved frfend Til'itala to the place where ho had elected to be buried. At Inst, however, the littl" nlntenn was reached, and we Tnthered round the ohlon" tomb, a concrete sareonhnßiis. standimMinon a-slightly raised'stone platform: Here, 011 -one side of the tomb. I rend with reverence the much-quoted epitaph;. T'nder tho w'.de and starry sky Tlip- th" eravn and let m" lie-, Oliid did I liv a.nd it adly d'c: /id I lav rat down with a will. This he the .verse, you grave for roe. TTere. ho lies where he longed to he: . Home is the sailor, home from, And the hunter home from the Mil. _ On the ooposite side of the tojlib, with n thistle .engraved ot one end. and n hibiscus flowers at the other, is an inscription "in the Samonn tmißue. an English translation of which is:

Whither thou coest'l will eo. and where thon lodenst. I will ro> • shall be mv nedDlo, f.nd thy God my ton . where thou diest I will die, and there -will I be buried. , .• ~ , .-, . ~, \t■ mm end of the tomb is a small receptacle in wliidi repose the cremated jv»iai"« of the . novelist's much-loved vrife Fannv Van de Grift Stevenson, who died in 'February,' 1914: Eighteen months later the casket, containing her ashes was so'.emnly deposited in its final resting-place. with a suitable inscription over it The casket was brought from Santa Barbara, California, by Mrs. Salisbury Field, better known to Stevenroninris as Mrs. Isobel Strong, the novelists step-daughter. The funeral ceremony whs attended bv Colonel Logan, then Administrator, atul several liigli-bfirn i Ramoan fvfules Or chiefs. Before- leaviner Samoa Mrs. Field founded, at Apm; a. scholarship for three native girls, each to have "Fnni" (the Samoan form of .Mrs. Slpvenson's nniMp) added to hor own name. A eomlition of the scholarship is Hint each holder shall take every year on March If) a bunch of (lowers to place on the tomb. , ... I had twice the pleasure of visiting Stevenson's old home, once as the guest of General Sir Alfred Robin, then Acting- ■ Administrator, and again as the guest of Colonel Tait the present Administrator of Western Samoa. After the novelist's death his widow sold the home and estate (excepting- the patch of ground on Mt. Vaea. on winch the tomb is situated). the purchaser being ft wealthy German centlemnn, Herr Ivunz. Later on Vailima became the GovfctnnK'nt House of German Samoa, and is now the residence of the New Zealand Administrator. Jinny fine pictures (including nn exceptionally fine copy of Lenbach s famous portrait of Bismarck), which were the property of the German occuprints, hang on the hut I t could see no portrait of its most famous owner; This seems to me to )>e a serious omission', and one which should bo

repaired. Vailima. must always bo a place to which Stevenson's admirers \ysitinL' the South Sen? will repair, and a stood portrait of Ii.L.S. should certainly be found there. What, So I was told in Samoa bv men who' knew Stevenson \i!iv: well, is the best portrait of the novelist, that painted by Signor Nerli, iormerlv well known in New Zealand, is now in the possession of Lord Guthrie, <:f Edinbursh,, who, by the way, is the owner of Svanston cottage, where the novelist spoilt a good deal of "his youth. That vent.email v'imld, I sliou'.d imagine, raise no objection to a copy of the Nerli portrait -being made by a competent, hand, and if surely should be easy to collect a sufficiently large sum for such a purpose. Failing a copy of the Nerli portrait, an enlarged photograph of the St. Oiiudens medallion of Stevenson,' now in St. _ Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, would prove a very suitable memento, Imt even an enlarged photograph of, sav, tile "Richmond portrait would he better than nothing. ■ A portrait of Stevenson should certainly find a place in the Hall at Vailima. . , ' t may add that whilst at .Apia T had Hie pleasure of meeting Mr. JL ,f. Moors, A well-known planter and merchant of Apia, whose business and private . ■ connection with the novelist are yet forth in his book. "Willi Stevenson in Samoa." Mi;,' Moor? possesses a long series of letters from Steven.*'"', none of which •have been published. This collection, so Mr. Moors tells me, it is his 'ntention to present to the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, to which institution (ho is an American citizen) he has already presented Stevenson's writing table, g.ven him by the widow. . There can 'be lio question of Steven«'Gh's .memory lx'insr preserved so far as the Samoaii.= are concerned. A native who was a member, of the gang of volunteer workers who constructed "The Rood of the Ixiving Heart" as a testimony of their esteem for T.usitala ("The Teller of Tales"), bill whom I met in iiis present day capacity of laundry agent, reiid Ii.L.S. a s'mply. eloquent tribute, "Good man, just man, owe no man one dollar, m all Samoa; big-heart man." .And it is as ft "big heart man" that native Sniro) will ever remember tho alien who sleeps peacefully under his tomb on. the summit of Mount Vaea. Stray Leaves. ■ Winston Churchill—the American, not the one and only British Winston—has blossomed forth ,as li playwright. His first dramatic effort is entitled "Dr. Jonathan." Tt is ft three-act play, with industrial democracy lis its motif.\ The "London Mercury," the new English literary tnorithly, edited by Sir. J. C. Squires, iivho. besides editing tho "New Stationian," finds time to write some very beautiful verse and clever parodies, is said to havji achieved a commercial success. In the second number (December issue) there is an excellent article on Pamuel Butlar, based tipon Mr. Henry Testing Jones's monumental biography of the author of "Erewhon." The official biography of Lord Kitchener, written by Sir George Arthur, is to be published next month by Macmillans. It is to be a four-volume work, a fact which , will probably have tho result of 'confining its circulation to tho libraries. Private book buyers nowadays look askance at even a two-volume biography.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19200410.2.85.2

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 167, 10 April 1920, Page 11

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,362

LIBER'S NOTEBOOK Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 167, 10 April 1920, Page 11

LIBER'S NOTEBOOK Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 167, 10 April 1920, Page 11

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