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3d. PERTH, THURSDAY, JANUARY
NO. 3,007,
SIXTY-NINTH YEAR.
15, 1942.
wombed Islands of the South Pacific Centres of Catholic Missionary Endeavour How the Faith was Brought to the Ends of the Earth The recent bombing by the Japanese of New Guinea and of Tutuila, the most easterly island of the Samoan Group, directs attention to The folthese places as centres of Catholic missionary endeavour. lowing account by the Rev. Father J. Murtagh should prove of great interest to our readers:-
great measure on the number of his
SAMOA When, in 1889, Admiral Kimberley arrived in Samoa on board the American cruiser, "The Trenton," he and his followers received a letter of welcome, signed Josefo, Malietao, Mataafa, King of Samoa. The Admiral was unaware that the baptismal name, Joseph, placed so prominently, had shocked the Samoan Protestant natives, and they had dumbly but urgently begged Mataafa to sign his name as his predecessors had done. To pacify the wounded feelings of his heretical subjects, Mataafa remarked that European Sovereigns bore similar names-Victoria, William, etc.-but, seeing that this in no way satisfied them, he said: "You ask me to give up my baptismal name; does that mean that you only allow me to be a Catholic in private, and that, as King of Samoa, I must have no religion? Well, then, I think most highly of all of the name I received in Baptism, and, if my sentiments do not please you, here are the title and the honours you have conferred upon me; do as you like with them." Such was the faith of Joseph Mataafa, principal Chieftain of Samoa, who died at Nfouhnouou (Apia) on the 6th. of February, 1912. It was said that he was nearly 90 years old, an age rarely attained by the natives of these islands. His renown had spread far outside the boundaries of the Oceanian archipelagoes, and eminent men who knew him well did not hesitate to declare that "from the nobility of his character and his talents, Mataafa might have won a name in any age or in any country." Born in the midst of paganism, Mataafa at first led the careless life of young chiefs of his native land. Issue of the noble line of the Toupouas, which has given most of her kings to Samoa, his one care was to enjoy the privileges of his princely birth: a life of idleness, of roving where he willed, and of pleasure, Pagan morals in those days left the young chieftain no other course; his greatness and renown depended in a
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strength, ability and courage. Up to the time of his baptism then, Mataafa was a polygamist, and when he had made up his mind to embrace the Catholic religion, he still kept five wives, and the Missionaries enjoyed the novel spectacle of seeing the ladies going regularly by command of their master to weed the fields- Finaly, grace triumphed, and Mataafa announced his resolve of a change of life.
He
was baptised, and, the same day married to a young girl from Toutouila, named Elizabeth, and never was there a happier or more united pair. Mataafa chose to set aside the ancient Samoan custom, which only allowed the wife an inferior place in the household: he made his Elizabeth the true companion of his life, even showing her every mark of his esteem and affection in public. She died while still young, and, wishing to remain faithful to her even beyond the tomb, Mataafa never married again. Every night he had a decade of the Rosary said in the family for the repose of her soul, and he was often found kneeling beside her grave in
tears. On March 18, 1868, he was baptised by the name of Joseph, being then nearly forty years of age. It would be an exaggeration to say that religion transformed Mataafa suddenly, and made, without a period of transition, a pagan soul into an irreproachable Christian hero. But, from the day of his baptism, he became, by his obedience to the workings of grace, a man and a Christian, whose equal one would seek in vain throughout the islands of the Pacific.
-
death. Such is, in brief, the story of Mataafa. In the peninsula of Moulinouou, a few paces only from the tomb of the German, English and American marines killed during the war by the bullets of his soldiery, stands the beautiful mausoleum in which Mataafa rests. The numerous religious insignia which he caused to be engraved upon it a short time before his death will tell generations to come that the last King of Samoa was, before all things else, a grand Catholic.
Samoa-or the Navigators' Islands-
was made a Vicariate Apostolic in 1851, the present Bishop being His Lordship Most Rev. J. Elarnand, S.M., who was consecrated at Apia, Samoa, in May, 1920. There are 14 million centres spread over the archipelago, with 21 priests, 14 lay -Brothers, 57 white Sisters, 25 native Sisters. Over 5,000 chil-
dren attend the Vicariate's hundred schools, while the total Catholic population is over 13,000 souls,
EAST AND CENTRAL NEVI GUINEA In 1896, the Very Rev. Father Eberhard Limbrock, of the Society of the Divine Word, with two Fathers and a couple of Brothers landed in Central New Guinea. The German New Guinea Company was then in charge of the colony, and the officials told the Fathers: "If you stay here in Madang we can offer you some protection, but if you go to the Tumleo Island you are To responsible for your own safety." Tumleo they went, and people did not The rnissioners built welcome them. a wooden house, which Brothers had marked and morticed for them in Holland, and they erected it on iron tubes (Continued on Back Cover.)
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wives. Of these, it is said, Mataafa had over a hundred. An easy matter in his case, for, to the advantage of birth, he joined a remarkable person, always having been considered one of the handsomest men in Samoa. Add to these advantages, a well -merited reputation for
Catholic missionaries met with few so endowed with the spirit of prayer. He said the Rosary and made the Stations of the Cross daily, and often withdrew from worldly pleasures to speak with Several volumes have been his God. written on the Samoan wars, and all agree in crediting Mataafa with a courage and ability in conducting operations that would have done honour to any European General. In a battle. fought a few miles from Apia, ammunition falling short, a veritable panic seized the warriors. The chiefs were doing their utmost, in vain, to rally the soldiers, when Mataafa, his rosary in one hand, his sceptre in the other, advanced alone in front of the enemy, He saved the army by this one courageous act. His political career was beset with difficulties that would have discouraged a less firm character than his. Three times elected to the throne by the full consent of the majority of his people, yet dethroned each time by the intervention of Europe, he was set aside with violence, then exiled, and only enjoyed peace at a somewhat advanced age. His tact, prudence, and upright conduct in dealing with the Great Powers (Germany, England, and the United States), which disputed for his kingdom, enabled him to triumph finalThe celebrated ly over all obstacles. English writer, Robert Louis Stevenson, who died in Samoa, pays him the following tribute: "Mataafa is a native I scarcely of exceptional character. dare to say of a Samoan that he is sincere, though I have met with the phenomenon, but I must say of Mataafa that he appears to be manifestly and invariably the enemy of falsehood." Mataafa was always a Catholic and a Christian king during the years his country had to struggle against party Newspapers intrigues and civil warall the world over spoke of his humanity and generosity in 1889, at the time when the terrible disaster of that year claimed so many victims in the sea Seven war vessels, roads of Apia. belonging to Germany, England and the United States were anchored in the port, when a fearful cyclone blew down up on the islands, One ship alone escaped; all the others were wrecked Mataafa came from upon the reefs. the mountains, whither he had retired before the enemies' cannon, and sent a hundred of his warriors to help the Stevenson has ship -wrecked crews. described this drama magnificently, a drama in which so many brave sailors
lost their lives, the survivors owing their lives to the magnanimity of a Christian chief. This chief forgot the war, and only saw brothers in the unfortunate beings battling with the waves for their lives. Tied together, the soldiers bravely flung themselves into the sea, in spite of the fearful rush of water, and succeeded in saving many of the sailors. This was Mataafa's noble vengeance on his enemies. He was finally exiled by the Powers for five years on the Jaluit Islands; he found his greatest consolation in the practice of Christian virtue, and won the sympathy of all the whites who knew him. At the close of 1900 he received from the German Government-which had restored him to his native land-the title of Alit Sili, or Head Chieftain of Samoa, which he retained up to his
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