Missionary Laws

Old Shipping Restrictions in Tahiti

EXAMPLES of printing from the press of the London Missionary Society from Huahine, and other islands adja cent to Tahiti, are now extremely rare and keenly sought after by collectors.

More than a century ago the missionaries drafted the laws and regulations which the natives, then enthusiastic Christians, were only too eager to promulgate.

Not the least interesting is an old law relating to the island of Bora Bora, which I came across recently in the Mitchell Library in Sydney. Its title was “A bye law for the foreigners on board ships touching here who desire bird shooting.”

It was made in consequence of the shoot ing of a woman by a bird-shooter in 1837.

“Should a vessel touch at the island let not the foreigners or other persons go to shoot birds,” it was stated. “It is for bidden. Let them go first to the King, and if the King gives consent, go: if he does not consent, and any foreigners are obstinate in attempting to shoot birds, they shall be brought and fined to work.”

The penalty for infringing the observance was the making of five fathoms of the

public road, or two dollars by way of payment to the King.

Before a vessel could obtain provisions at Bora Bora four dollars had to be paid to the King. The monarch of Huahine, however, demanded just twice that num ber of coins for precisely the same pur pose.

Regulations against desertion, particu larly in Tahiti and Moorea, were neces sarily stringent. Any person who enticed another to desert, or secreted him, or who in any way assisted, was ordered to cut four whale-boats of firewood “and carry them to the place appointed.” No members of a ship’s company were allowed on shore on those last-mentioned islands at night. Any person found on shore after 9 p.m. without a permit from Queen Pomare IV. was confined in the Papeete gaol until morning, and returned to his ship; the commander was ordered to pay a fine of two dollars per person to the Queen. Her Majesty, as a matter of fact, permitted the arresting constable to keep one dollar for himself.

Efforts were made to prevent commu nication between ship and shore during the night. Any native girl found on a visiting vessel was heavily fined. There were severe penalties for any Tahitian found working a vessel on the Sabbath.

The culprit was commanded to make fifty fathoms of public road.

Life in Tahiti at that period was so hemmed in by regulations that life was hardly worth living. Gone were the free and easy days known by the earlier whalers. As soon as the French were securely in the saddle, however, the majority of the laws (to which Queen Pomare had put her signature on the advice of missionary councillors) were abandoned. Reaction had set in, and there was a corresponding swing of the pendulum.

One of the greatest farces ever enacted in Tahiti was the attempt to prevent marriage between Europeans and natives.

The consequence was that immorality became rife and unchecked, and the foreign Consuls signed a requisition ask ing the Queen to veto the law. Actually the law was an incitement to licence.

“Eriki.”