Samoa As A Field For Historical Research

Historical Research

Letter to the Editor.

IF there are Pacific students seeking a field of research I would suggest that they would find Samoa a virgin territory.

There is in Samoa a wealth of mater ial, quite apart from the quarrels of the native factions, the war of the consuls, and the residence there of Robert Louis Stevenson.

For example, there might be an inves tigation of the early first migration of Polynesians who settled in Savaii; the latter waves of Polynesians, that drove the original settlers into the mountains:

the still later descent of the mountain inhabitants upon the coastal districts; the dispersion of these people through Polynesia and on to New Zealand: and a lot more of that period. Then there are the European discoverers, and so on. until we come to comparatively recent times.

I have a great deal of material about the Pacific in my collection, but I never have seen anything of abiding interest about Samoa, except the hackneyed re petitions of R.L.S. stories, and the in ternational quarrel over the possession of the islands.

People all over the world are inter ested in reading about Polynesia. Sa moa, as you know, is an interesting place and has a lot of history. . I am, etc.,

Islands Student.

Auckland, N.Z.

August 2, 1938.