Memoirs of Arii-Toimai

Rare History of Early Tahiti in NZ Library

By Eric Ramsden

ONE of the literary rarities of the Pacific is the volume known as “The Memoirs of Arii-Taimai.” Collectors will give almost any price for this book which only very occasionally comes on the market. Not even the Mitchell Library in Sydney, with all its resources, has been able to procure a copy. Therefore, it came as a surprise to me to find one in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wel lington, New Zealand.

True, it is not the original edition, the publication of which was arranged in Paris in 1901 by Henry Adams. It is an edition in German, published in Ham burg in 1923. But the German edition possesses what the English edition does no t_a portrait of Arii-Taimai, from an original photograph taken in Tahiti in middle life. Publication of the German edition was arranged by the Schlubach family. Teuira Henry, in her monu mental “Ancient Tahiti” (which was published by the Bishop Museum in bulletin form some years ago), spells the name “Schlubah,” and gives the family the noble “von.” There is no “von” attached to the name of H. A. Schlubach in connection with the German edition.

“The Memoirs of Arii-Taimai” must have been an extremely limited edition.

Probably not more than 25 copies were printed in Paris, the majority of which were distributed among the descendants of the great Tahitian chieftainess. One, of course, must have been taken to Ger many by the Schlubach family. There

are, it seems, still one or two copies in Tahiti. The Pomare princesses, daugh ters of ex-Queen Marau. have one. I know of another in the hands of a famous Norwegian collector of Pacific material.

There are others in the hands of Ameri can collectors. Paris had at least another.

As is pointed out in the preface to the German edition, this book is of such importance to students of Tahitian his tory, as well as to ethnologists, that it is more than a mere recital of happenings by one who happened to participate, behind the scenes, at a particular period of the island’s story. It is quite time that someone took the trouble to produce a new edition. Nothing is more certain than it would be grabbed by bibliophiles throughout the world.

ARII-TAIMAI, who was born about 1821, became the wife of Alexander Salmon. Marama of Moorea, high chieftainess of the Tevu clan of Papara, she was reared with Pomare IV, Queen of Tahiti. When the Queen, beset by her troubles with the French, fled to Raiatea, it was Arii-Taimai who persuaded her to return to Tahiti and resume her respon sibilities (or, rather, what was left of them) there. There is evidence to the effect that Arii-Taimai, if she had so desired, might have replaced Pomare on the throne. But Arii-Taimai was loyal to her Queen, and loyal to her people, and, undoubtedly, she did much to avoid further bloodshed and conflict.

The ties of the chieftainess with the Pomare family were further cemented when her daughter, Marau, married Pomare V (Pomare IV’s son and succes sor), the last sovereign of Tahiti. The descendants of Arii-Taimai and Alexan der Salmon are still numerous in French Oceania, and, indeed, can be found scat tered in many parts of the world. Several

have fought for the Free French in this war.

The eldest daughter of Arii-Taimai

and Salmon was Tetua-nui-reia-i-Raiatea (also known as Titaua), who became the wife of John Brander. There were 12 children of that union, the only survivor being Arthur Brander, of Papeete (who recently left the island for the United States).

Margaret Teriinui Taharai Brander, their daughter, became Mrs. Schlubach, and eventually settled in Hamburg. A son, I believe, of this German-Tahitian

marriage, became a naval commander.

Whether Mrs. Schlubach is living is not known; nothing has been heard of her by her Tahitian relatives since before World War 11.

Some time shortly before the outbreak of hostilities her grandson arrived in Tahiti. He was anxious, it seems, to prove his Aryan descent. The Nazis accepted the scientific contention that the Polynesians were of Caucasian origin;

therefore, there was no objection to Tahi tian blood. It was a different matter, however, with a Jewish ancestor. The young man was shown the record of Arii- Taimai’s marriage with Salmon in the British Consulate in Papeete.

Students of Tahitian history will recall the fact that Pomare IV specially lifted the interdiction against the marriage of Tahitians with foreigners so that her foster-sister, Arii-Taimai, might wed Salmon. The marriage record indicated without a shadow of a doubt that Salmon, who was a British subject and the son of a London banker, was a Jew. The young Nazi scion of this intermixture of noble Tahitian blood with Jewish and German strains did not succeed in his attempt to establish his pure Aryan descent!

There is a romantic story that when the French Royal House fell one of the Salmon family fled to England with some of the jewels, which subsequently were returned to the heirs of the King. Whe ther that can be substantiated I do not know. There appears .to be no doubt, how ever, that the Salmons did become bank ers in London. Additional information should now be available concerning the branch of the Salmon family in Raro tonga.

Mr. C. R. Turbett, Senior Veterinary Officer of Fiji, is at present in Australia on leave. It is understood that he has accepted a secondment for a minimum term of three years to Ceylon, where he will be in charge of animal husbandry.

He first commenced duties in the Fiji Government in 1923 as a Veterinary Offi cer. During the period November, 1937, to September, 1938, he was Acting Dir ector of Agriculture. Mr. H. T. B. Hall is acting as Senior Veterinary Officer dur ing the absence from the Colony of Mr.

C. R. Turbett.