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.
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