THE SOUTH SEA KINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1998, 28 April 1885, Page 3

THE SOUTH SEA KINGS.

(From the Standanl. Feb. l.'l ) We \esteiday announced the ck.itli of Hn-rGodetlioy, founder of the famous Hamburg houses, whose opeiations thiouuhout the Pacific weie at one time so enoimous, th.it the members of the firm weie widely know as "the .South Sea Kings." Many Europtan Powers e\cici<s< less control over the a&airs of mankind than did these oonnnuicial mon.irchs, and unquestionably the Chancellor of many a Koyal K\ch«-quei lias a smaller ie\enue to atlnmustei tlian thato\ei winch these German met chants held unlimited contiol. Ships and shields were thews, arsenals gionml gunpowder and foiged arms solely for their trade, glassworks made beadrs, mills wove oottons, and distilleries brewed ruin for the need of South Sea Ifcngs. All through the < iouutless isles ot Polynesia their agents bartered pearlshell and cocoanut knernels, and there was e\en a penod when they ii.ul begun to buy islands and to establish plantatations which wonld have practically put in their hands the power hitherto exercised by scoies of lndepcml ant chiefs. Ten years ago the throne of the South Sea Kings seemed as fii m as that of the only monarch to whom they owed any allegiance, from Apia, in the Samoan Isles, Herr Godeffroy controlled the trade of a region more extensive than any piivate firm ever managed before or since. From Cochin China ou the north west, to Valparaiso on the south-east— The Navigator Group being a soi t of halfway house— Godeflroy was a name eveiy where familiar. East and I west their ramifications extended, until there was scaicely an island iv the South Seas on which some of their agents did not reside, or at which some of their great fleet of \ essels did not touch. The disheaitened tiadois who had hitheito bueu the merchants of the ocean began to imagine that befoie long it would lie impossible for any one except G-cMle.-.ioy to live in the " sunny isles of Eden, I which their employees did so much to spoil. But just when the sway of the South Sea Kings spemed most firmly established— at the hour, indeed, w hen Prince Bismarck began to reganl the enterprise of Herr GodetFroy a 9 woithj of natioual recognition— the crash came, and in a tithe of the time that it took to J consolidate the might of the monaiuliy they and their wealth vanished like a dieam in the night. The rise, decline, and fall of a firm of merchants with ambition so insatiable, and a success vhicb, for a time, justified their aspirations, would in any ease form a curious chapter in the history of commerce. But though the Godeffroys fell at last, they did not disappear like an ordinary bankrupt trader. For on the ruins of the house rose the scheme of German colonies in the Pacific, and it is to the smaller idventurets who followed in their wake, and acquired •'interests" in ceitain of the Papuan Isles, that Piince Bismarck owes the excuse which led to the recent annexations, if, indeed, the reported absorption of Samoa is not due to the same cause. The history of the Godeffroys is, therefore, to a certain extent, a part of their country's chronicles, and as it has been told in moie than one " Weissbuch" and in many Parliamentary debates, it is by this time the common property of all who care to read its not uniustructive annals. Up to the year 1857 the Godeftroys traded chiefly in the Indian Seas, the captains of their fleet of vessels taking their ordeis from an agent established at Cochin, while those who made voyages to the coasts of South America reganlei Valparaiso as their rendezvous. At Cochin they carried on a large business as oil pressers, the " copra," or cocotuut kernels, affording the raw materials on which the employees operated; while fiom Coquimbo, Vakliria, Takuano, GMajaquil, San Jos6 de Guatemala, and all along the Spanish main they reaped a noble pi oht out of saltpetre, copper, and cochineal. But, in the year mentioned, Herr Anselm, the Godeffioys' agtnt at Valparaiso, u-solved to tap a region winch they had hitherto left to the Hoits, theßrduders, and other English traders, by establishing a blanch in the Tuamotu gtoup, rapidly radiating fiom thence until Samoa became their centre. ! Their plan 'V as to oust the middleman, by bunding the manufacturer and the letail puiohasu- at once into contact. Every employe had an interest m the traffic, and nr article was sold for less than 100 per cent on its prime cost.^ In Samoa the firm owned more than 25,000 acres, for which they paid " in tiade" at the rate of about 3s an acre, and the I hundreds of plantation labouieis whom they employed were imported in their own ships from the Savage and Line Islands. The muskets and other weapons for which the internecine wais of the Polynesians afforded a ready maikct weic manufactured by their own people at Liege, po that they could undersell any trader possessing smaller capital, has enterprise, and naturally fewer facilities for buying cheaply. When mother of pearl commanded too low a price to make it worth their attention, the Godeflroys abandoned the Tuamotu.s, and struck into new channels —south waul to the Friendly Archipelago, anjl noithward thioughout the Kingsnulls, and the Tokalau, EIIi3 and Gilbert group:). By-andbye they absorbed the barter of the Marshall Isles, and the Carolines, and on Yap, at the entrance of the Liuon Sea, they purchased 3000acrei of land and established a huge depot, intended, Mr Cooper tells us, to be an intermediate station between their chief post at Samoa and their old-established agencies at Cochin anil China. The next move of the GodefTioya was to obtain the countenance of the North German Confederation for schemes which

they slncwdly enough foresaw would, befoie loiiii, require all the suppoit which they could obtain With this mew, lien- CoilrtTr.n pointed out to the Count yon Bistnaick -.is the Premier of Pni^ia then was— th.it tl-cy pioposed to dhide their (states into lots agitable for Geiman cmiuMiits. In those dajs the great Minister was not, if we ate to believe Dr Busch, so enamoureil ot Colonies as he has since become. But Tlerr Godeffioy had been afiientl of his youth, and so a grant of arms was made to the S.imoui merchants, and tlie Tleitha warship was despatched to exercise her peisunsiw powpis on the chief-, whose disputes threatened to embroil the Godefhoys in the savage tut moil. However, long before the iionehid reauherl her goal, <=he was rc-cilled, for the Franco (Ifiman wai broke out, and the business of the South Sea Kings had to await until the quanels of still greater potentates weie made up. The good days of the Godeffroys weie destined never to arrive, for after the peace they were tempted to dabble hi land speculations in Rerlin, the failure of which, added to the vast sums they had swnk in the plantations, led them into difficulties that soon bi ought the castle of cards about their ears. In vain Pi nice Biamaik tried to stave oft' the inevitable by urging the Reichstag to come totben help. The Parliament would not listen In vain a new South Sea Company endeaxonred to snatch the chestnuts out of the fire The Company is in liquidation. Tlir end of the autocrats of Polynesia bid come, and now only the nu-inoiy of their magnificence, and the fine museum winch the founded in Hamburg, lcnnin to attest their former existence. Nm is it possible for any light-thinking man to bewail their downfall. Their trade was conducted with a cynical disregard of the outward decencies of life. No rmbarrassing questions regarding antecedents were ever asked of any of their agents. The only sine gun noii in a candidate for employment was that he should be able to speak some Polynesian dialect, to keep his tongue silent about his master's affairs, to get along with the natives, and to have no prejudices legarding the daughters of the land. Above nil, they were ordered nevei, either by woid or deed, to assist missionaries :on the contrary, wherevei the teachers of Christianity were found the Godelfroy agents were stiictly enjoined to do their best to influence the pagans against them, in order that they might be obstructed and excluded. Acting on such a code of morals, the lieutenants of the South Sea Kings were tor the most part, gentleman little calculated to set a virtuous example to their savage customers. In many cises, indeed, they were the offscourings of the Pacific, half-breed collectors of sandalwood and bochc-de-mer, " beachcombers,'^ who had taken " some savage woman," and could " preach, fight, and mind a musket." Under these circumstances the fall of the Godeffroys was the rise of those whom they hated, and it may be hoped that they hated, and it may be hoped that their successors have not in heuted their policy with the icst of their possessions.

WUI COKRI.M'ON'PKNT^. —An Cllthusiastic gentleman (says the Jf'mld) wutes suggesting tliat on an appointed day the penny pnpuis should bu sold at two pence, tlie sum realised by the mcic-.iscin price to co the formation of a fund f<» the widows mil oi plums of special concipoudents killed m action. The enthusiastic gentleman foigets that those organ? of tl»e LL J res>s u Inch canaffoidthe luxury of lepresentatives in the field are both able and willing to compensate surviving lel-itives for any luss they m.iy have sustained by the death or disablement of the bi tad- winner at the post of duty. Mr Cameron was nnmairied, but the Editor of the Stmulnul, with characteristic Renerobity, lost no time in delicately notifying to his mother at Inverness that she would be Kept in coin foi t for the rest of her days. Curhi oi DkiM\i\o— "A joung friend of mine was rured of an insatiable thirst for liquor, th.it had so prostrated his s\stcm tint he was unable to do any business. He \\ is entirely rured by the use of Am Co's Ho|> Hitlers It M i)i d ill tint b'irniii,; thirst, took i\ i) tin ippelite for lnjur.r, mule his nerves. sl< ul),.ind In- his rim umd i solu r mil sti'-xj) mm I>r mort thin tuo \c ir«, .mcl h.is no <li sire to re turn to Ins, cup., -1 ruin KjJiiU R R (Utlt ' d