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1. This agency description was compiled as part of a project to capture the finding aids created prior to 1987 into the GAIMS system. The agency dates are based on the dates of holdings.

2. Provenance of the Samoan archives as at 1977:

INTRODUCTION

The archives of the various governments of Western Samoa, from the middle of the 19th Century through the first quarter of the 20th Century, rest, for the most part, in the National Archives of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand, although some remain in Samoa. The removal of records to New Zealand began in 1920 when Dr. G. Scholefield shipped the archives of the British Consuls to the Dominion Archives in Wellington. He had found the material in a parlous state, suffering from damage by damp and insects and subject to removal by “interested collectors.” In 1955, Mr R P Gilson discovered additional material “lying derelict in government offices in Apia.” This material, consisting of early papers of the old Samoan Government, additional consular archives, and archives of the German administration from 1900 to 1914, was also shipped to the National Archives.

The excellent care afforded by the National Archives has, of course, arrested the damage and further dispersal of these valuable records and they are available to scholars and researchers. The records are represented by unannotated lists compiled by personnel of the Archives, but these lists give little indication of the extent, language or form of the records.

In early 1975, Renee Heyum, the Curator of the Pacific Collection at the University of Hawaii Library, suggested that as my sabbatical leave project I undertake the annotation of the lists of the Samoan Archives. Permission was kindly granted by the New Zealand Chief Archivist, Judith S Hornabrook, and I worked on the material in the National Archives in Wellington from October 1875 to April 1976.

The records occupy about 125 feet of shelf space and consist of 380 bundles or cardboard boxes and 20 large ledgers or day books. The bundles are wrapped in heavy brown paper and, like the boxes, are about 15” x 10” x 5” in size. The ledgers and day books are large, about 18” x 12” x 4”, although there is considerable variation in size. All bundles, boxes and ledgers are tied with string and all have numbered tags attached.
Most bundles and boxes have in them from two to ten sets of files.

The files, usual one-tenth of an inch to as much as four inches thick, are sewn in hard cardboard wrap-around covers, and each file has from five to three hundred fifty pages therein. Within each file the pages of each section appear to have been sewn together as a signature and then all signatures were further sewn together to form a file which was covered by a piece of cardboard folded around the signatures and sewn thereto. These cardboard folders were labelled according to the content, dated, and assigned a number. In some instances, the files were intact but in others only the signatures were intact. In a few instances the thread had rotted or been cut and the pages were loose, although, in most instances, in sequence.

The edges of some files have been gnawed by rats or insects but there are no holes caused by bookworms or termites. The condition of the paper varies from perfect to instances where the paper is brown, the writing almost undecipherable, and the sheets crumbled into small bits and pieces. Most of the material, however, although slightly discoloured, is in relatively good condition.

Many of the files include, in addition to the usual handwritten letters and records, statistical tables, proclamations, illustrated pamphlets, invoices, name lists, and commercial brochures advertising equipment, engines, and ships. There are also architectural drawings, blueprints, hand-drawn sketches and maps of land boundaries, and, in the case of the volcanic eruption on Savai’i, many coloured sketches and maps of the various stages of the lava flow from 1902 to 1920.  There are many impressive looking printed, coloured diploma-like documents bestowing titles on Samoan Chiefs. They usually were embossed in gold with the Imperial German Seal and probably considerable enhanced the chief’s position in the eyes of the people.

Although one finds material in Samoan, English and German scattered throughout the collection, one also finds that there is a surprisingly large proportion of English in the records of the German Colonial Administration. This occurred because the German Governor Wilhelm Solf, could not speak Samoan but did know English, and had hired as his translator, Charles Taylor, the educated son of an English sailor and a Samoan woman. There are hundreds of letters in Samoan with Taylor’s English translations and Solf’s interlinear German comments.

Much of the material is hand-written but shortly before 1900 typewritten material begins to appear. There are many printed pamphlets and newspapers clippings. There are a few photographs and some broadsheets.
There is a wealth of material on a great variety of subjects. Of particular note is material on leprosy, its introduction to Samoa by Hawaiians and the attendant problems. There is an extensive record covering, in minute detail, the eight-year Savai’i volcanic eruption which, incidentally, has a pattern similar to Hawaiian eruptions.

There is a copy of the record of the Lauati Rebellion of 1909 and the record of the 1870 trial of Captain William H (Bully) Hayes, the notorious blackbirder, on the charges of kidnapping natives from Manihiki and Pukapuka. There is very interesting material on German colonial policy and considerable material on the activities of the Consuls from the three great powers prior to the agreement whereby Samoa was taken over by Germany in 1900.

There is additional material only on microfilm filed in the National Archives, Wellington, which is not included with this paper. Subject content includes Foreign Office archives relating to the Pacific, 1838-1896 (F.C. 58, Volumes 1-93, Reels 1509-1539A, plus a few others of more recent date), and State Department archives (despatches from the US Consul, Apia, 1843-1906, Reels 1-27). The original microfilms are in the British Foreign Office or in the US State Department archives. For a list of the Foreign Office microfilms see, M S Giuseppi, Guide to the Contents of the Public Record Office, 2 vols. (London, Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1963).

I am greatly indebted for the assistance given to me by Judith S Hornabrook, the New Zealand Chief Archivist. She was most helpful, not only in making the material and facilities of the Archives available, but also in her guidance and advice. Credit must also go to the late M W Standish, who became Chief Archivist, and who worked on the arrangement and compilation of the series list of the Archives. The other principal in that work was Ian Horsfield who was also most helpful while I was working with the material, and, finally, I greatly appreciate the assistance given to me by Ken Cook and E Harvey Daniel at the Lower Hutt Records Centre and by the staff at the main collection in Borthwick House, Wellington.

          Ashby J Fristoe
          Honolulu, Hawaii

USER INFORMATION

The format of the original lists of the Samoan Archives has been retained. Information about additional bundles or files not listed in the original lists has been included or added where appropriate. All such additional information has been enclosed in parentheses, and I have also placed my annotations in parentheses after each paragraph or sub-paragraph as appropriate. There annotations include the language or languages of the material, whether it is handwritten, typewritten of printed and comments where appropriate as to the format or content or certain files. The parentheses in the original lists have been changed to brackets. The number of pages cited for entries represents a close estimate unless stated as an actual, or average, count.
The following abbreviations are used:
BOS  British Consular Series
BMO  British Military Occupation
GCA  German Colonial Administration
SG     Samoa Government
NZSA  New Zealand Samoan Administration
ms  handwritten
pr  printed
ty  typewritten
pp  pages
(n)  surname only, no initial (appears only in Index)