In Sunny Samoa

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 354, 15 May 1928, Page 12

In Sunny Samoa

NEW ADMINISTRATOR ARRIVES NATIVE WELCOME BLAZE OF COLOUR (From Our Oicn Correspondent J APIA, May 3. The new Administrator, Colonel S. S. Allen, C.M.G., D. 5.0., arrived at Apia to-day by the T.S.S. Tofua. He w* s welcomed on the steamer by the Act-ins-Administrator, Colonel J. \V. Hutchen, C.M.G., and as he came ashore in the Government launch the Samoan flag was unfurled at the bow and a salute was fired from Matautu. The Royal Marines formed a guard of honour for his Excellency and the new force of police was in evidence. The evening prior to the Administrator’s landing a very large meeting of the Mau had been held in the main street of Apia. The new police force carefully watched proceedings, but there were no developments of any importance. PICTURESQUE RECEPTION. This afternoon, outside the cool Native House of Parliament (Fono of Faipules) at Mulinu’u, a taalolo was given by loyal natives. All the chief districts of TJpolo and the island of Savaii were represented. The Administrator first received his two fautua, or native advisers, Malietoa and Mata’afa —both descendants of Samoan kings—and then proceeded to drink kava, served with full ceremony. The taallo followed. Prancing natives in puce, blue, lavender and crimson lava-lavas; wearing busbies of false hair decorated with mirrors, coral and apparently any glittering object that had come to hand, leaped along the roadway, occasionally stopping to paw the ground in a fantastic horse-like fashion or execute a neat ballet step by clicking ankles sideways. Grass anklets adorned shapely legs, crimson beads decorated splendid chests; here and there a necklet of shark’s teeth denoted a man of rank. Tom-toms beat insistently—one enthusiastic drummer had armed himself with half a bucket! —and there was a never-ceasing chant. Both Leon Bakst and Paul Whiteman would have learned something at this taallo. Advancing boldly and retreating coyly each village party approached the dais, ultimately drawing up before the Administrator with a wild final whoop. This extreme indication of friendship over and further stressed by lavish gifts of roast pig, the leaders of the villages and the belles -were presented to the new Governor and his wife. A native orator held forth interminably. Colonel Allen responded briefly, holding a large ebony staff, without which, in the islands, oratory is impossible. This was followed by some magnificent sivas or native dances in which the pupils of the Government schools shone particularly. For marvellously synchronised rhythm and perfect arm action these sivas would be hard to excel. Many of the movements consist of slapping the body with bare hands, indicating that the quest of the playful Samoan mosquito may originally have given birth to these delightful dances. At all events, it was an opportunity that is seldom given even to residents of Samoa and the white population of the island turned out in hundreds for the ceremony. MAU STILL FLOURISHING. And the Mau? Tamasese and his merry men were holding a mass meeting in another part of the township. What they did and said no one knows —but it probably amounted to nothing. That the Mau is still flourishing in Apia is evidenced by the number of Samoans wearing the purple lava-lava with a white stripe. The town seems full of these. Although an order was at one time issued forbidding the wearing of these garments it seems to have been disregarded, or allowed to lapse. One conspicuous feature in Apia is the American flag. Taxicabs plying for hire in the streets fly - a small American flag over the radiator; sometimes a cluster of them. One launch proprietor running between the steamer and the jetty has a “Man-sized” American flag floating at the stern of his boat. Asked the reason why, the Samoan shrugs his shoulders and says: Me Pago Pago,” which, for those who do not know their geography, may be translated as “I belong to American Samoa.”