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 landing both in a
patch of mire planted with big stones, and the stones sometimes reddened
with the blood of horses that have gone before.
Pages:
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273