it from the contagion of the swamp. Samoans have a quaint phrase

in their language; when out of health, they seek exposed places on
the shore "to eat the wind," say they; and there can be few better

places for such a diet than the point of Mulinuu.
Two European houses stand conspicuous on the harbour side; in

Europe they would seem poor enough, but they are fine houses for
Samoa. One is new; it was built the other day under the apologetic

title of a Government House, to be the residence of Baron Senfft.
The other is historical; it was built by Brandeis on a mortgage,

and is now occupied by the chief justice on conditions never
understood, the rumour going uncontradicted that he sits rent free.

I do not say it is true, I say it goes uncontradicted; and there is
one peculiarity of our officials in a nutshell, - their remarkable

indifference to their own character. From the one house to the
other extends a scattering village for the Faipule or native

parliament men. In the days of Tamasese this was a brave place,
both his own house and those of the Faipule good, and the whole

excellently ordered and approached by a sanded way. It is now like
a neglected bush-town, and speaks of apathy in all concerned. But

the chief scandal of Mulinuu is elsewhere. The house of the
president stands just to seaward of the isthmus, where the watch is

set nightly, and armed men guard the uneasy slumbers of the
government. On the landward side there stands a monument to the

poor German lads who fell at Fangalii, just beyond which the
passer-by may chance to observe a little house standing back-ward

from the road. It is such a house as a commoner might use in a
bush village; none could dream that it gave shelter even to a

family chief; yet this is the palace of Malietoa-Natoaitele-
Tamasoalii Laupepa, king of Samoa. As you sit in his company under

this humble shelter, you shall see, between the posts, the new
house of the president. His Majesty himself beholds it daily, and

the tenor of his thoughts may be divined. The fine house of a
Samoan chief is his appropriateattribute; yet, after seventeen

months, the government (well housed themselves) have not yet found
- have not yet sought - a roof-tree for their sovereign. And the

lodging is typical. I take up the president's financial statement
of September 8, 1891. I find the king's allowance to figure at

seventy-five dollars a month; and I find that he is further (though
somewhat obscurely) debited with the salaries of either two or

three clerks. Take the outside figure, and the sum expended on or
for His Majesty amounts to ninety-five dollars in the month.

Lieutenant Ulfsparre and Dr. Hagberg (the chief justice's Swedish
friends) drew in the same period one hundred and forty and one

hundred dollars respectively on account of salary alone. And it
should be observed that Dr. Hagberg was employed, or at least paid,

from government funds, in the face of His Majesty's express and
reiterated protest. In another column of the statement, one

hundred and seventy-five dollars and seventy-five cents are debited
for the chief justice's travelling expenses. I am of the opinion

that if His Majesty desired (or dared) to take an outing, he would
be asked to bear the charge from his allowance. But although I

think the chief justice had done more nobly to pay for himself, I
am far from denying that his excursions were well meant; he should

indeed be praised for having made them; and I leave the charge out
of consideration in the following statement.

ON THE ONE HAND
Salary of Chief Justice Cedarkrantz $500

Salary of President Baron Senfft von Pilsach (about) 415
Salary of Lieutenant Ulfsparre, Chief of Police 140

Salary of Dr. Hagberg, Private Secretary to the Chief Justice 100
Total monthly salary to four whites, one of them paid against His

Majesty's protest $1155
ON THE OTHER HAND

Total monthly payments to and for His Majesty the King, including
allowance and hire of three clerks, one of these placed under the

rubric of extraordinary expenses $95
This looks strange enough and mean enough already. But we have

ground of comparison in the practice of Brandeis.
Brandeis, white prime minister $200

Tamasese (about) 160
White Chief of Police 100

Under Brandeis, in other words, the king received the second
highest allowance on the sheet; and it was a good second, and the

third was a bad third. And it must be borne in mind that Tamasese
himself was pointed and laughed at among natives. Judge, then,

what is muttered of Laupepa, housed in his shanty before the
president's doors like Lazarus before the doors of Dives; receiving

not so much of his own taxes as the private secretary of the law
officer; and (in actual salary) little more than half as much as

his own chief of police. It is known besides that he has protested
in vain against the charge for Dr. Hagberg; it is known that he has

himself applied for an advance and been refused. Money is
certainly a grave subject on Mulinuu; but respect costs nothing,

and thrifty officials might have judged it wise to make up in extra
politeness for what they curtailed of pomp or comfort. One

instance may suffice. Laupepa appeared last summer on a public
occasion; the president was there and not even the president rose

to greet the entrance of the sovereign. Since about the same
period, besides, the monarch must be described as in a state of

sequestration. A white man, an Irishman, the true type of all that
is most gallant, humorous, and reckless in his country, chose to

visit His Majesty and give him some excellent advice (to make up
his difference with Mataafa) couched unhappily in vivid and

figurative language. The adviser now sleeps in the Pacific, but
the evil that he chanced to do lives after him. His Majesty was

greatly (and I must say justly) offended by the freedom of the
expressions used; he appealed to his white advisers; and these,

whether from want of thought or by design, issued an ignominious
proclamation. Intending visitors to the palace must appear before

their consuls and justify their business. The majesty of buried
Samoa was henceforth only to be viewed (like a private collection)

under special permit; and was thus at once cut off from the company
and opinions of the self respecting. To retain any dignity in such

an abject state would require a man of very different virtues from
those claimed by the not unvirtuous Laupepa. He is not designed to

ride the whirlwind or direct the storm, rather to be the ornament
of private life. He is kind, gentle, patient as Job, conspicuously

well-intentioned, of charming manners; and when he pleases, he has
one accomplishment in which he now begins to be alone - I mean that

he can pronounce correctly his own beautiful language.
The government of Brandeis accomplished a good deal and was

continually and heroically attempting more. The government of our
two whites has confined itself almost wholly to paying and

receiving salaries. They have built, indeed, a house for the
president; they are believed (if that be a merit) to have bought

the local newspaper with government funds; and their rule has been
enlivened by a number of scandals, into which I feel with relief

that it is unnecessary I should enter. Even if the three Powers do
not remove these gentlemen, their absurd and disastrous government

must perish by itself of inanition. Native taxes (except perhaps
from Mataafa, true to his own private policy) have long been beyond

hope. And only the other day (May 6th, 1892), on the expressed
ground that there was no guarantee as to how the funds would be

expended, and that the president consistently refused to allow the
verification of his cash balances, the municipal council has

negatived the proposal to call up further taxes from the whites.
All is well that ends even ill, so that it end; and we believe that

with the last dollar we shall see the last of the last functionary.
Now when it is so nearly over, we can afford to smile at this

extraordinary passage, though we must still sigh over the occasion
lost.

MALIE. The way to Malie lies round the shores of Faleula bay and
through a succession of pleasant groves and villages. The road,

one of the works of Brandeis, is now cut up by pig fences. Eight
times you must leap a barrier of cocoa posts; the take-off and the