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Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 294, 29 August 1888, Page 4

By the lust mail from Noumea we (" Sidney Telegraph ") learn that the islands of Wallis and Futuna, in the Central Pacific Ocean, nave been solemnly proclaimed underthe protection of France. The ceremony of hoipbingtheFrench colour* in bhe name of the Republic was carried out by the Governoiyof New Caledonia, and in the presence of bhe officer--, non commissioned officers and men of the French man of-war Dives and of many high officials, civil and military. M. Albert Epardeau, bhe editor of "Le Colon de la Nouvelee Caledonio" representing bhe press, and on his return pub lished some interesting particulars concerning these little-visited islands. Ha de& cribes Wallis as "a veritable garden with rich verduie and abounding in a profusion of breadfruit trees and with dense groves of the cocoanub trees that stretch frum the margin of the seashore to the top of the hills in the centre of the island. In form bhe native huts, which peep from amongst the heavy foliage, are oval and 01 considerable size. The timber- work is of coconut trunks and roofing oi pandanic* leaves. The hut is left half 6pen on two sides, but i< closed at each and by little bamboo canes (symmetrically intebwoven." A crowd of plants and trees were met w ith, which the writer's modest study of botany did not enable him to classify scientifically. He found a textile plant, aualagous to the cotton tree, and from the bark of which the natives weave their body cloths. '* The common pandanus is equally textile. Vine-apples grow wild, bub the Walludana do nob cultivate them, preferring to leb bhem run wild and plucking the fruit whikb it is yet green and half formed. I have &een plants a metre high ; one might nob, perhaps, be able to hang a hammock in them, as in George Sand's famous banana-tree ; bub they were prodigiously fine lor all that.' The residence of the Queen and the chief town of the district of Hahaku is called Ma lantu, where the Royal palace consists of a great hub of modest appearance. The exterior and the interior alike denote a taste in architecture that is far from aristocratic, and the furniture is quite in keeping with the architecture. In addition to all this, Queen Amelia Lavnela much prefers an adjoining hut of the ordinary size. There she habitually lives, only repairing to the palace when visitors are announced, and returning to her humble couch in the hub so soon as they have turned their backs upon her. The Queen is an excellent woman, very intelligent, very clever, and blessed with a good heart. She is 68 years of age, and has not a white hair on her head. " The receipt ?" cry my lady readers. The receipt i-> simple and we recommend it to every lady who can spare the time and who can boast a clever maid. For Amelia spends five or six hours a day at her toilette, being indeed, despite her age, a gieat coquette. Several of her tiring maids are exclusively occupied in pitilessly "hunting down" bhe white hairs ol their Queen. The joke is that Amelia han a head of hair which quite pales the advertisements of bhe " Mrs Allens Regenerate" The faster they pull out the white hairs thefastertheblackonesgrow ! Another detail : She never sleeps without having previously received a through mabsage like Hammam. The Queen has lost the little ringer of each hand. The mutilations bear witness to an ancient, custom now now abolished. When a near relative died custom demanded that you should lose a finger. Queen Amelia has suppressed this custom often enough to retain the use of four finger*; on each hand. The Queen is greatly respected by her people, and her subjects only approach her with profound obeisances. Kivalvt, the Premier, is the only person who is held less strictiy to the observance of etiquette. The throne is hereditary, not in the direct line, but in the collateral line to bhe first degree : it is neither a son nor a daughter who succeeds but a brother or a si-ter. In defaulb bhe successor to the loyal line is appointed by a council of Ministers. The functions of the Kivalio are handed down on the same conditio«s. There are six Ministers, and each of the three districts (Mua, Huhake" and Hihifo) is governed by a pule, a kind of magistrate {prefct), who has around him a district council composed of Kaic-Pulc (assisbanbs). The Fono is a deliberabive assembly, composed of thePwJeandthe KauPule, and the chiefs can be admitted to it on occasion. The ereat Fono is the national Assembly, something like a Parliament the Queen, her Ministers, theP?«Zeand the French Resident compo&e it. It is the Fono which adminster justice bhe great Fono is the tribunal of appeal from which there is neither court of repeal nor State court which greases the wheelsof justice by shorfceningits procedure. The penaltiesconsistof fines payable in kind. This is a hard dispensabion for the Vvallisians, who are idle and whomeasure their crops by their needs. Adultry is the crime most severel punished and is met by a fine of between 15001 band '20001b of coprah. The receipts from the tribunals are divided between the Queen the pule and the Kau-pule. Every Mondaythe Fono assembles for the judgmenb of causes. Such is in all its simplicity bho adminisbra bive organisation of Uvea ; it is infinitely more simple bhan our colonial sysbem, and no one grumbles at it. Perhaps, alber all, we go backwards whilst we fancy ourselves progressing. The religious mission which was established by Bishop Pompalier possesses at JVJabaubu Corinthian style, well placed on bhe border of the beach. Here King Lavuela, the father of the reigning queen lies buried. In the district of Hihifo the mission has equally established a parish with a church. It is in that districtthat the College of Lano, directed by P. Bonzignes, superior of the mission. The college is built on a height overlook ing the sea and commands a lovelly view. The college shelters more than 100 pupils) who are taught to read, write and cipher in the native language. They are even making native priests. Not far from the college stands the Girls' School, conducted by a European Sister of Charity, who has eight native sisters under her orders. Lano can boast a fine stone church, 100 ft x 35fb, with a transept 80ft long. That is the fourth religious monumenb which raises^ ibs head ab Wallis. The party made an interesting excursion to Lanutuli at the other end of the island, where the college has a property planted vrith 800 breadfruit trees, besides cocoanub trees and bananas. Here, too, the lakes are found. They are more or less grand, but all take the form of a perpect cone, getting gradually wider towards the top. Ifc is thought that these lakes are ancient) craters now filled with water, and the funnel shape is so well preserved that ifc ap pears highly probable. M. Epardeau here concludss his remarkably interesting letter " for fear of fatigu ing his readers," scarcely realising in his modesty the eager*esss with which his revelations concerning this little-visted island will be received in every parb of Ausbralasia.