PREFACE

The occupation of German or Western Samoa by an advance party of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the memorable August of 1914 has given to these islands such interest for the peoples of the Empire, and especially for Australasians, as can at no time have existed before the Great War. Yet New Zealand's concern m Samoan affairs is of long standing; and, so far from being destitute of historical interest, Samoa's record shows prominence altogether beyond her desert. She long was the scene, and the subject of repeated strifes, to which many individuals and three great nations. England, America and Germany, were parties, strifes not invariably creditable and involving frequent, at times agitated, changes of control. Of all this, and of Samoa's earlier as well as her later history, the threads lie in many directions, and some of them are disappearing; they go to form a story the web of which it is believed has never been textured up as a whole. The pursuit of this story has held a constant fascination for the writer during much of his stay in Samoa; it was in the desire of gathering it into a clear, sequent, and above all a faithful and not over-coloured record that the history which follows was entered upon. It is hoped that the brevity of the book, which is the converse of the amount of research involved, will be found consistent with completeness and accuracy.

The thanks of the writer are due to the many who have from time to time supplied him with much of the necessary material, and for a great deal of the information contained in Chapter IX to his friend Alexander Stronach, Judge of the High and District Courts of American Samoa.

Apia, Samoa.
31st December. 1917.