Countess Of Jersey
p. 72 · Read in the full issue
In Samoa
APROPOS of the P.I.M. review of Isobel Field’s This Life Tve Loved, one is reminded that the Countess of Jersey (who is still alive, aged 88) visited the Stevensons in Samoa about 1892, and caused commotion by making a call upon the rebel camp of Mataafa.
Owing to the fact that her husband was then in office as Governor of! New South Wales, Stevenson suggested that Lady Jersey should take the name of his cousin, Amelia Balfour. But Mataafa and his followers saw through the subterfuge.
All went well until the formal presen tation —in private—of kava. Mataafa, the soul of diplomacy, presented the kava first to Lady Jersey—and not to R.L.S. apparently the most distinguished person present. However, next day, when it was given in public, Stevenson received the coconut shell first. Lady Jersey was much criticised for visiting Mataafa. But as she had already called on Malietoa, she felt that taking the name of Stevenson’s cousin would not entail any diplomatic
contretemps.—Eriki.