WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 324, 10 June 1911, Page 10

WHERE BLACK RULES WHITE.

ABOUT THE HIGH TIMES THEY HAVE IN HAYTI. Hayti, that big West Indian island, or half-island, is once again in -the throes of a "terrible" revolution.

It is probably the most turbulent country in the world. Out of its last twenty-seven presidents, twenty-three had to flee for their lives, or were assassinated or killed in battle.

It used to be a French possession, and a mangled French is still spoken there; but for the last century or so it has been an independent black republic. The Hayt-ians believe themselves to be the most civilised lyition on earth, but it is a comic opera kind of civilisation. The cities, for instance, are fitted up for electric light, but the electricity does not work, and nobody tries to make it. Hayti is so shiftless that it has no foreign trade to speak of, so there are very few whites on the island. The few Who do live there keep very quiet, for ITayti despises them. Xo white person is allowed to own land. This law alone is sufficient, to prevent a large white population collecting there.

Hayti used to be known as the lnntl of the dukes with absurd names. Some sixty years ago it started a peerage, and every peer chose the name whose sound struck his fancy. One black nobleman was the Duke of Marmalade, another the Duke of Lemonade. There was also a Marquis of Ginger Pop. But the peerage lias been abolished. Nowadays Hayti is chiefly known as the land of generals. The latest statistics—which, Hayti fashion, are twenty years old —show sin army consisting of (1500 privates, 7000 regular officers, and GSOO generals. These generals, who have no horses, ride on mules, and the army 1s clad in the cast-off uniforms of half the regiments of Europe. Some of the men parade without boots, some with cigarettes in their mouths, some with long sticks of sugar cane there; some have rusfcv swords, the rest walking-sticks. The are many civilian generals as well. Country squires are usually generals. As every respectable Havtian has a passion for frock-coats awl silk hats, perspiring generals arc often to bo seen working in the fields frock-coated under a burning tropical sun. Ilayti has a navy composed of six third-class cruisers, but even Hayti does not take that navy very seriously. When toreign vessels put into Havtian ports they are plagued by Haytian tars trying to sell for a few pence brasswork and engine-room fittings!

Havti is steadily slipping back into barbarism. Some years ago the municipality of Port de Paix showed sufficient enterprise to construct waterworks. The town was well piped, and hydrants were placed at short intervals all along the streets. Decorative fountains and drinking troughs were put at every corner. The natives were delighted. For a week they gave themselves up to fetes, balls, and processions, to celebrate the great event. But at the end of the week they went and tore up the whole system. Now they tie horses to the hydrants and pick their way in the main streets among fragments of pipes, and are happy. It would seem they haven't much use for fresh water.

There is a grim side to Hayti's relapse into savagery. Voodooism is getting a greater hold than ever it had. Voodooism is simply a sacred form of cannibalism, practised by high and low. At intervals these frock-coated generals retire to the depths of the jungle and worship the snake-god, sacrificing and eating children in its honor. All reepci'tablo inhabitants of Hay.ti hotly deny that this is so, but travellers have seen. At least two of Hayti's recent presidents were known Voodoo-worship-pers.

Hayti is a beautiful land. It has a glorious climate, some of the loveliest mountain and forest scenery in the world, and the most fertile of soils. The Haytian is a lazy, good-humored child. But somehow there is an uneasy atmosphere about the island, and most of the few travellers who have found their way there have confessed to heaving a sigh of relief on seeing .the coast-line fade on the horizon,