Men Who Knew Yesterday

By Our Samoan Correspondent

Mr. Paul Hoeflich

ONE of the best known and most res pected citizens of Apia, Mr. Paul Hoeflich, a resident of 45 years’ standing, celebrated his 80th birthday on October 1 in best health and vigour.

Born in the small Prussian town of Sonnenberg in Brandenburg, young Hoe flich was apprenticed after leaving school to follow the trade of his father, a furrier.

Finding life in a country town too monotonous and dull, he left home at the age of 17 and went to sea, first mus tering as a ship’s boy on the German brig Helios, which was leaving for the United States.

Endowed with an adventurous spirit and a strong will as well as with a sense of humour, he found the strenuous life and hard work on board a sailing vessel to his liking and sailed for four years on the Western Ocean, on various ships and under various flags. In 1879 he arrived in Australia and served on various ships on the Colonial and the China coasts for a further four years.

In 1883 he went to Jaluit in the Marshall Islands, whence he later proceeded to the Gilbert Islands, at that time a little known group and not yet annexed by Great Britain. At Tarawa he became acquainted with Mr. McMurdoch (who is still alive, and corresponding with Mr.

Hoeflich at present) who persuaded the young sailor to take up trading in part nership with him.

The Gilberts at that period were the gathering place of many adventurous characters and fugitives from the law.

Crime, especially murder, was nothing unusual in those days. Hoeflich gradu ally gained the respect and the confidence of the natives and for over six years did a flourishing trade under the special pro tection of influential chiefs. One of these was the famous King Tinbinoka, of Abemama (known as the “Napoleon of the South Seas”), a despotic ruler of an Islands Kingdom, who was immortalised by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Mr. Hoeflich met the famous writer at Abemama in 1889 and travelled with him on the old Stevenson schooner, Equator, to Apia. Much impressed by the at tractions of life in Samoa, he decided to liquidate his business in the Gilberts.

Having done so, he returned to Apia in 1891 to settle permanently. Soon after his arrival he acquired considerable pro perty and also started in business as an aerated water manufacturer, gradually building up a fine business and gaining a reputation for honest and straight forward dealing.

During the stirring times of civil wars and political troubles, under the Samoan Kingdom, the Three Power Regime, the German, and the New Zealand Military and Civil Administrations, Mr. Hoeflich has lived and worked, meeting and mak

Mr. Paul Hoeflich

ing friends with all the prominent personalities for over 45 years. He is one of the last few living links with old Samoa, and many ar e the tales and anecdotes he remembers of those his torical days.

Genial, smiling, “Paul” (as he is called by his numerous friends) is popular and well-respected everywhere in Samoa. He has taken great interest in civic and social affairs, as well as in sport, especi ally horse-racing. One of the founders of the old German Concordia Club in 1893, he is now- President of honour.

Shortly after his arrival in Samoa Mr.

Hoeflich married, and his home life has been very happy. Of his five children two sons are living at Suva, Fiji, while his only daughter is married and re siding in America. His eldest son, Mr.

Otto Hoeflich is managing the aerated water and cordials business.

Miss B. Wingfield, of the Methodist Mis sion in Fiji, will shortly return to New Zealand to be married.