CHAPTER XXXVII

THE SAMOAS

In coming from the Fijis to Apia, the capital of Western Samoa, our ship crossed the date line, and when we sailed over the 180th meridian, east longitude, we went from one day into the day before. I felt some satisfaction in getting back one of the many days I have lost in going across the Pacific in the opposite direction.

It was delightful sailing along the Equator. We had nothing but sunshine, and such glorious sunshine! As we coasted the island of Savaii, the largest of the Samoan group, the air was fresh and the wind strong enough to make it cool and pleasant. The sea was steel blue, with silvery whitecaps dancing upon it, between us and the shore, and the sky was full of white, smoky clouds.

The volcanic island of Savaii in its thick cloak of verdure makes one think of the Hawaiian Islands. As we passed along its shores it seemed a great hill shaped like a horseshoe, with the ends of the shoe sloping down to the water.

Going on we soon reached Upolu, on the north coast of which Apia is situated. Both Upolu and Savaii now belong to the Territory of Western Samoa, which has been created from what was formerly German Samoa and is now administered by New Zealand under a mandate from the League of Nations. The United States owns Tutuila, Manua, and some of the smaller islands of the group.

When Germany and the United States came to their agreement about the division of the Samoas in 1899, the Germans, in their greed for land, were glad to take the two biggest islands. But out here it is thought that we got the best of the bargain. Both Savaii and Upolu together are not so large as Rhode Island, and much of Savaii has been so recently subject to volcanic action as to be unfit for cultivation. Savaii is forty-eight miles long and twenty-five miles wide, and Upolu is a good deal smaller. Both islands are mountainous and well watered. Like Tutuila, they have been built up by volcanoes and are for the most part surrounded by coral reefs.

As I came into the harbour of Apia the tide was low, and I could see a great garden of coral rising out of the water. Here and there along the shore were groves of coconut trees, and, farther up the mountains, plantations of cacao. Amid the green jungle on the hills I noticed patches of chocolate brown, where the ground had been cleared for cacao plantations. Just back of Apia gleamed the white villa where Robert Louis Stevenson lived, and above it rose mountain after mountain of different shades of green or blue, covered with vegetation and canopied by masses of fleecy clouds. Here the shadows turned the sea to green, and there to navy blue, while upon the land they made a mass of light and dark patches of velvet on the green crops and the still deeper green forest. Close to the water’s edge were what from our steamer looked like vast cornfields. These the captain said were coconut orchards, containing tens of thousands of trees loaded with millions of nuts.

[Illustration: As they grow older the Samoan girls lose their beautiful figures but never part with their sweet dispositions and their love for ornaments and flowers. The women marry in their ’teens, and large families are the rule.]

[Illustration: The chief product and export of Samoa is copra, the meat of the coconut. Dried and packed in sacks, it is shipped abroad for use in making soaps, toilet preparations, and “nut” butters.]

I am disappointed in Apia. From Robert Louis Stevenson’s letters and the place it once held in international affairs I had expected to find it a large city. It is really a small town with a foreign population of less than five hundred British, Germans, New Zealanders, and Swedes, with a few Americans and French for good measure. Its buildings are bungalows, with roofs of galvanized iron, strung around the harbour.

Our steamer was greeted by a great crowd of Samoans and the whole population of foreigners, through which I went up to the Tivoli Hotel, my headquarters during my stay. It did not take me long to exhaust the sights of Apia. The town has a half-dozen business houses engaged in shipping cacao and copra and in furnishing the natives with different kinds of fancy goods, cottons, and tinned stuffs. There are also two photographers, a number of consuls, and a baker’s dozen or so of government officials.

My guide over the island of Upolu was one of the Samoan chiefs. He was half naked when I came into his house, a kind of thatched shack not far from Apia, but he dressed himself in my presence and went about with me. I found that he spoke good English, knew the islands well, and was very intelligent, as are all the natives I have so far met.

With him I visited many of the native houses. Owing to the hot climate, the Samoan dwelling is scarcely more than a roof made of plaited branches supported on a number of slender posts through which all the airs of heaven may circulate. The walls are mats of fibre which are rolled up inside and against the roof when not in use, and which may be let down to keep out the wind and rain. Not a nail is used in the construction of such a house, but instead the parts are tied together with yards of plaited coconut fibre called cinnet. The men spend much of their leisure time plaiting cinnet, some of which is as fine as twine.

The floor of the typical hut is a circular terrace raised about two feet above the ground and surrounded by a shallow ditch. The terrace is made of stones closely fitted together, and over it is spread a layer of white coral pebbles gathered from the beach to form the carpet for the hut. The pebbles, which serve for mattresses as well as floor covering, are sometimes known as “Samoan feathers.” When the native is ready for bed he simply lays a fibre or grass mat upon them, takes down his pillow from the rafters, crawls under his mosquito net, and goes off to the Land of Nod. His pillow is no more than a little log set on four short legs so as to raise his head well off the floor.

The Samoans have always been noted for their hospitality. They give all strangers a cordial welcome, and food, lodging, and even clothing may be had in any native house without thought of compensation. Nevertheless, when a white visitor stays in a Samoan home he gives presents on leaving to the full value of his entertainment. No native guest ever does this, but the foreigners have been so liberal in the past that they have led the people to expect gifts. No Samoan host would, however, lower himself so greatly as to take money. In almost every settlement there is a “Taupo,” or “Maid of the Village,” elected by the people to receive guests and take a leading part in all public ceremonies and festivals. When she goes any distance from home the maiden is surrounded by a train of elderly women as chaperons. She holds office for a few years, or until she is married.

The Samoans are a clean people. Everywhere I see them in bathing. The women and the men wade about waist-deep in the streams and swim together in the surf, splashing one another, and acting more like children than grown-ups.

The young women have beautiful forms. They are as straight as the statue of Venus in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, and as plump and as well formed as the Venus de’ Medici. Their complexions are of a rich chestnut brown and their large soulful eyes are full of smiles. Unfortunately they often bleach their black hair to a bright red by the use of lime. Both women and men are good-natured, gentle, kind, and easily governed.

I have been asked to investigate the chances for Americans to get rich in the Samoan Islands. Robert Louis Stevenson made about twenty thousand dollars a year out of his books, but as far as I can learn, for all his sweating on his cacao plantation, he did not get a cent out of it. The islands have an excellent climate. It is good for consumptives, and if the consumptive were anything else than an impractical newspaper or literary man he might prosper at coconut raising or in growing cacao. There are cacao planters on Upolu who are making money.

Cacao plants produce the seeds from which chocolate is made. The trees are planted in rows about fourteen feet apart and it is four years before they come into bearing. After that time, if properly cared for, they are profitable. One Samoan planter has recently netted more than twelve hundred dollars a year from sixty acres, and there are others who are doing equally well.

This man has three thousand trees planted at Pago Pago and expects to set out more. Another planter I have heard of got nine hundred dollars a year from less than eight acres of cacao in American Samoa. It is estimated that two thirds of all the land in the Samoan Islands is suitable for the growing of cacao. As to coconuts, there is money to be made in raising them on almost any of the Pacific islands.

During my stay at Apia I have heard much about things in our part of the Samoan Islands. The Tutuilans now consider themselves American citizens and hurrah for the Stars and Stripes as enthusiastically as we do on the Fourth of July. The government has brought quiet to the island, torn for years by strife among the different tribes. Figuratively speaking, the people are now turning their swords into pruning hooks.

We are ruling the Samoans after the Dutch method; that is, we are working through their chiefs and allowing them to govern themselves. Every village is a little republic, with its own chief, who is in most cases a hereditary ruler. Our naval officers, who administer the islands, sit behind the chiefs and pull the strings, and the people think they are ruling themselves. Unless inconsistent with our laws, native customs are never changed without the consent of the people. Missionary work is encouraged.

The Island of Manua contains about twenty square miles. It is mountainous and surrounded by coral reefs. The mountains are about a half mile in height, but the land rises so gradually that the whole island can be cultivated.

The Manuans are much the same as the Tutuilans, except that, being out of the line of ocean steamship travel, they are less advanced. They have had missionaries for the last century and are Christians. They have churches and schools and live peacefully under their king, producing enough food for themselves and selling enough copra to satisfy their few other wants. Coconut and banana plantations are being put out on all our islands. The American naval officers with whom I have talked have nothing but good to say of the people.

When the Americans first took possession, a party of officers was received in great state by the King of Manua, who insisted on treating them to kava before he discussed business. He had his chiefs with him, and the Queen sat beside him during the audience. The kava was brought in by the belle of the island in a cup fastened to a branch of coconut palm. It was given first to the king, who handed it back to her, whereupon she filled it and again gave it to His Majesty. After pouring some on the ground, he took a drink of it. It was next presented to the officers in the order of their rank and they had to drink it, although they knew of the traditional way of making this native beverage.

Kava comes from a root grown in the Pacific Islands and by the old formula is made in the following manner: The kava is washed and cut up into little cubes. Then a young girl, preferably a pretty girl, after washing her hands and rinsing her mouth, begins to work. She puts one cube of kava into her mouth, and chews it vigorously. When it is well masticated she adds another and another until she has in her cheeks a mass of fibre as big as an egg. This she takes out and lays in a large flat bowl and then begins to form another egg. She keeps on making eggs until all of the root is chewed. Then water is poured into the bowl, and the girl begins to knead the fibrous mass under it. When it is strained it is a milky liquid that tastes for all the world like a mixture of soapsuds and bitters. It is not considered intoxicating, but when taken in excess it goes to one’s knees, so that for a time the imbiber cannot walk straight.

This drink is used in all the islands of the Pacific. In the out-of-the-way Samoas a person making kava has the right to ask any girl who is passing, no matter who she may be, to come in and chew his root for him. In most parts of Samoa this practice of chewing has died out, and the roots are now pounded up with stones instead. In the more remote districts, I am told the old custom prevails.

The London Missionary Society is doing much good throughout all parts of Samoa. It has been working here for three generations and claims thousands of converts to Christianity. Roman Catholics also have missionaries on some of the islands. The Samoans are naturally religious and the level of their morality is far higher than that of the foreigners who bring in whisky and introduce the vices of civilization to these southern seas. There are, it is true, high-class business men scattered through the various archipelagoes, but the average beach-combing trader is as a rule a curse instead of a blessing and most of the evils that have come to the people are due to him.

For many of us the chief interest of the Samoas lies in the fact that it was near Apia that Robert Louis Stevenson passed the last years of his life and did much of his best writing. While I was there I rode up to “Vailima,” the big, rambling house in which he lived. Some time after his death the place was purchased by a wealthy German planter, who did all he could to dispel the Stevenson atmosphere and soon destroyed most of the vestiges of the former owner’s taste. He put up a sign over the gate beginning with _Eingang verboten_ and going on to say in English, French, and Samoan, as well as German, that strangers were forbidden to come inside the enclosure. He allowed Stevenson’s tomb to become overgrown with weeds, and the pilgrimages to it from the incoming ships became fewer every year.

Now “Vailima” is the official residence of the administrator of Western Samoa and Stevenson’s memory is kept much greener than it was in the days of German control. Once more travellers go up the steep mountain path to the peak of Vaea where he was buried as he had requested. You recall how much the Samoans loved their “Tusitala,” or “Teller of Tales” as they called Stevenson. Part of the road from Apia to “Vailima” was laid by them and christened “The Road of the Loving Hearts.” At his funeral it was the natives who had worked with him who bore Stevenson’s body up the steep path to the mountain top, where he now lies with the Pacific at his feet. On his tombstone are the lines of the “Requiem” he had written to be inscribed there:

Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie. Glad did I live and gladly die, And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me: “Here he lies where he longed to be. Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And the hunter home from the hill.”

SEE THE WORLD

WITH

FRANK G. CARPENTER

You can go round the world under your own living-room lamp by reading the travels of Frank G. Carpenter.

Millions of Americans have already found Carpenter their ideal fellow traveller, and have enjoyed visiting with him all the corners of the globe. He tells his readers what they want to know, shows them what they want to see, and makes them feel that they are there.

Doubleday, Page & Company, in response to the demand from Carpenter readers, is now publishing the complete story of CARPENTER’S WORLD TRAVELS, of which this book is the ninth in the series. Those already available are:

_1. “The Holy Land and Syria”_

_2. “From Tangier to Tripoli”_ Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripoli

_3. “Alaska, Our Northern Wonderland”_

_4. “The Tail of the Hemisphere”_ Chile and Argentina

_5. “From Cairo to Kisumu”_ Egypt, The Sudan, and Kenya Colony

_6. “Java and the East Indies”_ Java, Sumatra, The Moluccas, New Guinea, Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula

_7. “France to Scandinavia”_ France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden

_8. “Mexico”_

_9. “Australia, New Zealand, and Some Islands of the South Seas”_ Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, The Samoas, The Fijis and the Tongas

CARPENTER’S WORLD TRAVELS are the only works of their kind. These books are familiar talks about the countries and peoples of the earth, with the author on the spot and the reader in his home. No other one man has visited so much of the globe and written on the ground, in plain and simple language, the story of what he has found. CARPENTER’S WORLD TRAVELS are not the casual record of incidents of the journey, but the painstaking study of a trained observer, devoting his life to the task of international reporting. Each book is complete in itself; together they form the most vivid, interesting, and understandable picture of our modern world ever published. They are the fruit of more than thirty years of unparalleled success in writing for the American people, and the capstone of distinguished services to the teaching of geography in our public schools, which have used some four million copies of the Carpenter Geographical Readers.

In the present state of affairs, a knowledge of nations and peoples is essential to an understanding of what is going on and of how and why all that is happening affects us. Carpenter takes his readers to the lands of the news and makes more real the daily flashes by cable and radio.

A word to your bookseller will enable you to get the books of CARPENTER’S WORLD TRAVELS already published and to learn how you may arrange to secure the entire series.

INDEX

Aborigines, of a low order, 6; customs of the native blacks, 120; exterminated in Tasmania, 146.

Agriculture, of great importance, in Australia, 4; in Tasmania, 148; in New Zealand, 176.

Agricultural colleges and experimental farms, 117.

Albury, building of irrigation dam near, 66.

Alum, in the volcanic regions, 225.

American goods, great sale of in Australia, 137; in New Zealand, 255 _et seq._

American refrigerating machinery in New Zealand, 241.

American rule in the Samoas, 278.

American trade with the Fijis, 272.

Americans, many settlers in Australia, 82.

Animals, of a strange type, 5.

Ants, used as food by the aborigines, 123.

Ants, White, protection against, 29.

Anzacs, National holiday in memory of the, 167.

Apia, Samoa, made famous by the American-German controversy, 274.

Apples, great production of, in Tasmania, 147.

Arbitration in labour disputes in New Zealand, 204.

Arbitration Court, arbitrary rulings of, 107; New Zealand Court, 204 _et seq._

Arcades, a feature in the business section of Sydney, 31.

Art schools, state coöperation in establishing, 115.

Artesian wells, the blessing of, 68; in the Coolgardie district, 100.

Asiatic exclusion, the policy of, 109.

Auckland, largest city of New Zealand, 202.

Australian Transcontinental, building of the, 91.

Automobile, use of, in the back country, 48.

Automobiles, American, Australia largest foreign purchaser of, 140; use of, in New Zealand, 258.

Ballarat, and the gold rush, 84; the first Australian gold field, 95.

Bananas, in Queensland, 14.

Bank deposits, of New Zealanders, 198.

Barmaids, in Melbourne, 79; legislation against, in New Zealand, 187.

Bathing beaches, popularity of, 34.

Baths, medicinal at Rotorua, 222.

Bendigo gold field, great yield from, 96.

Birds, seven hundred varieties of, 133; strange, of New Zealand, 248.

Bismarck Archipelago, now administered by Australia, 159; strange tribal customs on, 160.

Bismuth, deposits of, in Queensland, 21.

Blue gum, durability of, 90.

Bonds, large Queensland issue floated in the United States, 140.

Bougainville, principal island of the Solomon group, 163.

Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, 12.

British New Guinea, government of, 8.

British trade, in New Zealand, 260.

Broken Hill Silver Mines, among the richest in the world, 4.

Broken Hill mining companies, production of iron and steel goods, 142.

Bullock drivers, characters of the sheep country, 54.

Burrinjuck Reservoir, of the Murrumbidgee irrigation project, 67.

Bushmen, customs of the, 120.

Butter, exportation of, from New Zealand, 244.

Cacao, its cultivation in Samoa, 277.

Camels, necessary in construction of Transcontinental railway, 92; invaluable in Western Australia, 100.

Canberra, the new capital of the Commonwealth, 8, 73.

Cannibalism, among the aborigines, 124; in New Guinea, 160; among the Maoris, 230; in the Fijis, 263, 264.

Canadian trade in New Zealand, 261.

Canterbury Plains, source of the famed mutton, 236, 237.

Carroll, Sir James, of Maori blood, 234.

Cassowary, a bird of the forests and jungles, 134.

Caterpillar, vegetable, 252.

Cathedral of St. John, at Brisbane, 13.

Cattle ranching in the back country, 69.

Cattle routes, laid out by the government, 70.

Centennial Park, Sydney, 34.

Chaffee brothers, start first irrigation project in Australia, 65.

Charters Towers, centre of gold and copper district, 21.

Cheese, exportation of, from New Zealand, 244.

Christchurch, centre of sheep industry, 236; in the garden spot of New Zealand, 256.

Civil service, applied to railway employees, 87.

Coal, abundance of, 3; mines worked by the government in New Zealand to prevent high prices, 207.

Cockney accent, in New Zealand, 215.

Coconut groves, in the Fijis, 270.

Commerce of the United States with Australia, 137.

Compulsory military service voted for in New Zealand during the war, 260.

Conciliation and Arbitration Act, in New Zealand, 204.

Constitution of the Commonwealth, similar to that of the United States, 8.

Consular service, American, best of any nation, 259.

Convicts, the first settlers, 7.

Cook Islands, annexed by New Zealand, 172.

Cooking, in the hot pools, 228.

Coolgardie, gold rush to, 98.

Coöperative associations, of New Zealand, 199.

Coöperative butter and cheese factories of New Zealand, 244.

Copper, rich deposits of Queensland, 20.

Copra, preparation and how used, 270.

Cricket, finest grounds in the world at Melbourne, 75.

Dairy products, state aid in development of industry, 117.

Dairying, growing importance of, in Australia, 4; in New Zealand, 174, 244.

Dances of the Maoris, 232.

Darling Downs, a rich agricultural section, 15, 29.

Darling River, one of the most important of Australia, 63.

Department stores, of Sydney, 31; of Melbourne, 80.

De Rays, Marquis, attempt to start the Free Colony of Oceania, 162.

Desert lands, extent of, 4.

Dingoes, a serious problem in the sheep country, 60.

Discovery and settlement, 6.

Distances, between Australia cities, 3; to other parts of the world, 6.

Divers, pearl, Japanese the most efficient, 155.

Dogs, wild, kill many sheep, 60.

Domain, the, the gathering place of Sydney, 34.

Dress, observance of, on the sheep stations, 47.

Drinking, a national vice, 77.

Droughts, the horrors of, 64.

Duck-billed platypus, link between bird and beast, 131.

Dugongs, sea-cows resembling the fabled mermaid, 132.

Dunedin, a Scotch city in New Zealand, 256.

Earthquake Flat, in New Zealand’s “Yellowstone Park,” 220.

Education, excellence of the public schools, 113.

Eight-hour day, first established in Australia, 104; monument commemorating, 104; explained by a government official, 111.

Electric power, generated at coal mines for use ninety miles away, 143.

Employees, state and federal, proportion to number of inhabitants, 112.

Emu, the national bird of Australia, 135.

Eucalyptus, use of, as paving blocks, 27; forests of, 28; remarkably durable for railroad ties and paving blocks, 90.

Exports, extent of, from the United States to Australia, 137.

Farms, smaller, movement toward, 38; for settlement, in New Zealand, 184; of New Zealand, 213.

Farmhouses, the prevailing type, 28.

Federation of the states, 7.

Fences, rabbit, enormous extent of, 58.

Fencing, on the sheep ranches, 38, 39, 41.

Ferns, in great variety in New Zealand, 175, 214.

Fiji Islands, the country and the people, 263.

Fire walkers, ceremony of the, in the Fijis, 268.

Flax, New Zealand, a wild product of the swamps, 252.

Fodder, preservation of, for dry years, 69.

Foxes, introduced to combat rabbit plague, prove a pest, 60.

Free Colony of Oceania, vicissitudes of the, 162.

Freaks of nature, from New Zealand, 246.

Fruit, production of, in Tasmania, 147.

Fruit growing, advantages and opportunities, 14.

Gambling, a national vice, 76, 77.

Games, New Zealanders much interested in, 210.

Gasoline, price of, in New Zealand, 203.

Germany’s former possessions now administered by Australia, 159; by New Zealand, 159, 172.

Geysers, of New Zealand, 223.

Glaciers, of New Zealand, 174.

Godley Glacier, New Zealand, 174.

Gold, discovery of, and amount produced, 3; the Mount Morgan mine, Queensland, 19; the Ballarat rush, 84, 95.

Golden Mile, famous gold mine, 99.

Government of the Commonwealth, 8.

Government ownership, results of state control of railways, 87; New Zealand a leading exponent, 171, 200.

Governor of the Fijis, duties of, 269.

Grasshoppers, used as food by the aborigines, 124.

Great Barrier Reef, a chain of coral, 10.

Great Britain, regard for in New Zealand, 260.

Griffin, Walter Burley, wins prize for plan of city of Canberra, 74.

Griffin, model city in the irrigated district, 67.

Gympie gold fields, 21.

Half-holiday, compulsory in New Zealand, 210.

Hargraves, discovers gold at Ballarat, 95.

Harvesters, immense factory of the Sunshine Harvester Co., at Melbourne, 142.

Hermitage, the, the government sanctuary of the kea parrot, 249.

Hobart, Tasmania, one of the “farthest south” towns of the globe, 144.

Hoddle, auctioneer of first lots sold in Melbourne, 83.

Horse racing, an enthusiasm of Australians, 49.

Horse racing, at Melbourne, 75; in New Zealand, 211.

Horses, saddle, indispensable on the big farms, 49.

Hosiery, American, commands the Australian market, 139.

Hot springs, at Rotorua, New Zealand, 222.

Hours of business in Melbourne, 82.

House servants, scarcity of, in New Zealand, 191, 192.

Houses for workmen built by the government in New Zealand, 209.

Hunting, as practised by the bushmen, 125.

Hydro-electric development in Tasmania, 150; in New Zealand, 258.

Immigration, opposition to, 110.

Implements, American, used extensively in Australia, 141.

Industrial school near Suva, Fiji, 266.

Insects, used as food by the aborigines, 123.

Insurance, issued by the government, in New Zealand, 197.

Invercargill, the southernmost town, 261.

Iron, extensively mined, 3; deposits, in Queensland, 21.

Iron and steel, growth of the industries, 142.

Irrigation, the beginning of, in Australia, 65; in New South Wales, 67.

“Jackeroo,” meaning of the term, 49.

Jam, exportation of, from Tasmania, 147.

Japanese divers, most efficient in pearl fisheries, 155.

Jarrah, a remarkably durable wood, 90.

Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land, now administered by Australia, 159.

Kalgoorlie, artesian wells at, 92.

Kangaroo, the, a marsupial, 5.

Kangaroos, of many kinds, 129.

Karri, a remarkably durable wood, 90.

Kauri gum, the quest for, 252.

Kava, and the chewing process, 279.

Kea parrot, the sheep killer of New Zealand, 249.

Kimberley gold fields, 98.

Kiwi, a strange bird of New Zealand, 248.

Koutu, village in volcanic region of New Zealand, 222.

Labour, white men only employed in cane fields, 14; the powerful sheep-shearers’ union, 52; conditions on the state-owned railways, 87; wages and hours of work in New Zealand, 200; hours and wages in the mutton refrigerating plants, 242; scarcity of in the Fijis, 271.

Labour laws, protecting women workers in New Zealand, 188.

Labour unions, their part in public affairs, 9; Australia thoroughly organized, 104.

Lake Eyre, a body of salt water below sea level, 4.

Land Act Bill, passage of, 17.

Land for Settlements Act, and the redivision of the large holdings, 182.

Land ownership system of New Zealand, 178, 182.

Land settlement in Tasmania, 149.

Laughing jackass, or kookooburra, 136.

Launceston, Tasmania, to receive electric power from Great Lake plant, 151.

Lead, deposits of, in Queensland, 21.

Leeton, model city in the irrigated district, 67.

Levuka, one of the two principal towns of Fiji, 268, 269.

Libraries, state coöperation in establishing, 115.

Life insurance, issued by the government in New Zealand, 197.

Liquor-option law, workings of, 78.

“Living wage,” as laid down by New South Wales Court of Industrial Arbitration, 106.

Lizard, three-eyed, of New Zealand, 250.

Lollipops, origin of name, 36.

London Missionary Society, good work in Samoa, 280.

Lyre bird, native of Australia, 134.

Macarthur, Captain John, said to be the introducer of the prickly pear pest, 22; pioneer in the sheep industry, 45.

Manua, one of the American Samoas, 273, 278.

Maoris, of advanced civilization, 171.

Maoris, number of, in New Zealand, 177.

Maoris, the story of the, 227.

Marriage customs of the Maoris, 231.

Marsupials, preponderant in Australia, 5; many varieties, 129.

Marsupial mouse, of New Zealand, 250.

McCaughey, Samuel, his fortune in land and sheep, 38.

Meat-export trade of New Zealand controlled by a government board, 244.

Melbourne, a magnificent commerce centre, 72; laying out of the site and auctioning of first lots, 83.

Melbourne Cup Race, chief sporting event of the South Pacific, 76.

Merino sheep, extra fine fleece of the, 44; weight of fleece greatly improved by breeding, 51.

Milford Track, the most beautiful walk in the world, 174, 175.

Minerals, abundant in Australia, 3.

Mining school at Ballarat, 97.

Minting gold coins at Melbourne, 101.

Missionaries, success in the Fiji Islands, 266.

Moa, the extinct giant bird of New Zealand, 246.

Moore Park, Sydney, 34.

Mount Bischoff tin mines in Tasmania, largest in the world, 148.

Mount Cook, New Zealand, the “cloud piercer,” 174.

Mount Egmont, New Zealand, 173.

Mount Leviathan, composed of pure iron, 21.

Mount Lyell, Tasmania, gold, copper and tin production of, 148.

Mount Morgan, richest gold mine of the world, 19.

Municipal ownership, Wellington, New Zealand, a leading example, 168.

Murchison Glacier, New Zealand, 174.

Murray-Darling, the only important river system in Australia, 4, 63.

Murrumbidgee irrigation project, in New South Wales, 67.

Murrumbidgee River, one of the most important of Australia, 63.

Mutton, amount exported, 40; exportation from New Zealand, 236; export trade of New Zealand controlled by a government board, 244.

Nails, not used in Samoan dwellings, 275.

National Park, near Sydney, 34.

National Provident Fund, a New Zealand institution, 199.

New Britain, of the Bismarck Archipelago, 161.

New Guinea, former German territory now administered by Australia, 159, 160.

New Ireland, of the Bismarck Archipelago, 161.

New Plymouth, New Zealand, in the dairy district, 174.

New South Wales, size, and wealth of its people, 24.

New Zealand, location, and physical geography, 170 _et seq._; form of government, 171; climate, 173; population, and proportion of aborigines, 177; early colonization movements, 179.

New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Company, a coöperative association, 199.

Newspapers and their circulation, 118.

Ngauruhoe, volcano in New Zealand, 173.

Nuggets, remarkable, found in the Ballarat gold field, 96.

Nukualofa, capital and only town of the Tonga Islands, 272.

Nullarbor Plain, difficulties in building railway over, 91.

Oats, high yield in New Zealand, 176.

Old-age pensions, in New Zealand, 194.

Opals, in Queensland, 21; quantities offered for sale, 81.

Organs, pipe, rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney, 32, 74.

Owls, the solution of the pest of birds in fruit region, 257.

Papua, government of, 8; administered by Australia, 159, 160.

Parliament of the Commonwealth, organization of, 8.

Pasteur, fails in production of virus to combat rabbit plague, 59.

Phillip, Captain, brings first sheep to Australia, 45.

Pearl fisheries, at Thursday Island, 152.

Pearl shell, the commerce in, 154.

Pelicans, common in Queensland, 132.

“Pelorus Jack,” the pet whale, 251.

Pensions, old age, in New Zealand, 194.

Pineapples, produced extensively in Queensland, 14.

Pipe line water supply in Coolgardie district, 100.

Pipe organs, rivalry in, of Melbourne and Sydney, 32, 74.

Platypus, strangest of the animal kingdom, 5; link between bird and beast, 131.

Plug tobacco used as money in New Guinea, 138.

Poisoning, of rabbits, 57; of dingoes and foxes, 60.

Port Arthur, old convict colony of Van Diemen’s Land, 145.

Postal savings banks, in New Zealand, 198.

Poverty, almost unknown in New Zealand, 194, 198.

Prickly Pear, its fateful introduction in Queensland, 22.

Prickly-Pear Commission, in search of means to destroy the pest, 22.

Prohibition, in New Zealand, 187.

Prosperity, in New Zealand, 255.

Public debt, huge, of New Zealand, 202.

Public schools, excellence of, 113.

Public Trust, a government institution of New Zealand, 199.

Purchasing power of the Australian people, 138.

“Queen Emma” of New Guinea, 162.

Queensland, size and location, 13; population, 16; travels in, 10.

Rabaul, principal European colony in Bismarck Archipelago, 161.

Rabbits, the plague, and efforts to combat it, 56; exportation of frozen carcasses, 59; a serious pest also in New Zealand, 240; freezing in New Zealand for export, 257.

Rabbit skins, exportation of, Australian, 59; New Zealand, 240.

Railway fares, in New Zealand, 218.

Railway ties, durable woods used, 90.

Railway travel, 28.

Railways, owned by the different states, each of different gauge of track, 85; total amount of trackage, 86.

Railways of New Zealand, travelling over the, 213; government owned, 214.

Rainfall, scarcity of, in Australia, 62.

Ratu Epele Nailatikau, high chief of the Fijis, 265.

Refrigeration and shipment of New Zealand mutton, 237, 240.

Religious belief of the bushmen, 126.

Reptiles, used as food by the aborigines, 123.

Rimutaka Mountain, New Zealand, steepest railway grade in the world, 216.

Rockhampton, city of gold and copper, 19, 20.

Rotorua, most famous health resort of the South Seas, 222.

Ruapehu volcano, in New Zealand, 173.

Salote, Queen of the Tongas, 272.

Samoa, German, now administered by New Zealand, 159, 172.

Samoas, the islands and the people, 273 _et seq._

Sapphires, from Queensland, 22.

Satin-bower bird, and its habits, 134.

Sausage casings, amount exported, 40.

Savaii, volcanic island of the Samoan group, 273, 274.

Schools, travelling, in New South Wales, 114.

Seddon, Richard, New Zealand’s greatest premier, 181.

Sharks, danger from in diving for pearl shell, 156.

Sheep, Australia the largest producer, 40; fine breeding stock produced in Tasmania, 148.

Sheep, blooded, great demand for, 41.

Sheep industry, importance of, 4, 37.

Sheep raising, New Zealand’s chief industry, 184, 236 _et seq._

Sheep ranches, immensity of the, 38, 41.

Sheep shearing, how conducted, 52; in New Zealand, 239.

Sheep shearers, the aristocrats of the sheep business, 51.

Sheep show, annual, at Sydney, 40.

Sheep stations, social life on the, 47.

Sheepskins, annual exportation, 40.

Shoes, American, in New Zealand, 259.

Signs, curious to an American, 81.

Silver, great deposits of, 4; great output of the Broken Hill field, 142.

Slang, Australian, 81.

Slaughtering, and refrigerating of mutton for export, 241.

Sleeping cars, in New Zealand, 217.

Social legislation, New Zealand first in many laws, 194.

Solomon Islands, the natives and the products, 163.

South Pacific Ocean, wild and stormy, 165.

Sports, New Zealanders’ devotion to, 210.

Squatters, meaning of the term, 39.

Squid, danger from in pearl fishing, 157.

State-owned railways, the, 85.

States, comprising the Commonwealth, 7.

Steel, manufacture of, a growing industry, 142.

Stevenson, Robert Louis, his villa at Apia, Samoa, 274, 280, 281; not a successful planter, 277.

Stores and business of Melbourne, 80.

Street cars, municipally owned in Auckland, 203.

Strikes, rare in New Zealand, 204.

Sugar cane, extensively grown with white labour, 14.

Sugar plantations in the Fijis, 270.

“Sun-downer,” the tramp of the sheep country, 54.

Suva, capital of the Fijis, 268, 269.

Swans, black, of New Zealand, 250.

Sydney, metropolis of the Antipodes, 24; its shipping and fine harbour, 25; walks about the city, 31.

Sydney _Bulletin_, widely read newspaper, 33, 47.

Tarawera, Mount, eruption of, 220.

Tariff, protective, to foster home industries, 141, 143.

Tariff, preferential, with Great Britain, 143.

Taronga Park, cageless zoölogical gardens, 34.

Tasman Glacier, New Zealand, 174.

Tasmania, the Switzerland of the southern Pacific, 144.

Tattooing, among the Maoris, 229.

Taupo, largest lake in New Zealand, 175.

Taxation system of New Zealand, 179.

Te Anau, second largest lake in New Zealand, 175.

Tea, great amount used by Australians, 112.

Technical schools, in many cities, 116.

Thakombau, last king of the Fijis, 264.

“Three Eights” monument at Melbourne, 105.

Thursday Island, the centre of the pearl-fishing industry, 152.

Tikitere, the “hell” of New Zealand’s volcanic region, 225.

Tin, extensively mined, 3; deposits of, in Queensland, 21; Mount Bischoff mines in Tasmania the largest producers in the world, 148.

Tonga Islands, the country and the people, 263, 272.

Toorak, residential suburb of Melbourne, 73.

Toowoomba, principal city of the Darling Downs district, 15.

Topography of Australia, 4.

Torrens Title, system of land transfer, 16.

Trackers, remarkable keenness of the bushmen as, 125.

Trade schools, in every large city, 116.

Travelling schools, in New South Wales, 114.

Turnips, production of, in Tasmania, 148; as feed for sheep, in New Zealand, 213, 238.

Tutuila, one of the American Samoas, 273.

Tyson, James, wealthy stockman, 37.

Unions, encouraged in New Zealand, 204.

Unionism, Australia thoroughly organized, 104.

“Universal providers” the Melbourne department stores, 80.

Universities and higher education, 116.

Upolu, an island of the Samoas, 273, 274, 275.

Victoria, irrigation projects in, 67.

Volcanoes, of New Zealand, 173, 220.

Voting, compulsory, in New Zealand, 186.

Voyage to Australia, the, 1.

Wages, on the sheep ranches, 39.

Waikato River, largest in New Zealand, 213.

Waimangu Geyser, New Zealand, 224.

Wallaby, a species of Kangaroo, 131.

Water, scarcity of, in Australia, 63.

Water supply in the dry lands, 66.

Wealth, in Sydney, 24; of the Australian people, 138.

Wellington, New Zealand, the capital city, 167.

Wells, artesian, furnish water in the desert, 92.

Whale, “Pelorus Jack,” the pet of New Zealand, 251.

Wheat, immense production and export of, 4; transportation and care awaiting exportation, 90; production of, in Tasmania, 148; high yield in New Zealand, 176.

White Island, New Zealand, a bed of hot sulphur, 173.

White men, a country for, 104.

Williams, U. S. Consul to Fiji, his part in the transfer of the islands to the British, 264.

Wimmera-Mallee irrigation system, the, 66.

Wool, immense production, and of fine quality, 4; annual production, 40; how handled and sold at Sydney, the chief wool market, 42; prices attained, 43; the science of grading, 44; handling of the crop, 53; weight of fleece of the different breeds of sheep, 240; handling the clip of New Zealand, 243.

Woollen mills, of New Zealand, 243.

Woman suffrage, adds strength to labour element, 9; in New Zealand, 186.

Women, in politics and labour, in New Zealand, 186.

Women divers in the pearl fisheries, 157.

Workmen’s houses, built by the government, in New Zealand, 209.

Yates, Mrs., the first woman mayor, 186.

“Yellowstone Park” of New Zealand, 220.

Zinc, works of the Electrolytic Zinc Corporation in Tasmania the largest of the kind in the world, 150.

Transcriber's Notes:

Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.

Perceived typographical errors have been changed.