An extremely rare and complete copy of THE FIJI TIMES dated Wednesday October 17 1888 and printed on very fine natural tapa, or masi. This example was probably made as a presentation gift for a visiting dignitary and consists of four, fringed, fully printed pages of tapa, or bark-cloth. There are type-set adverts for various shipping lines, insurance companies, stationary & cards, camphor-wood, auctions, various banks, import & export agents, cabinet makers, bulk wood, cough-medicine, hairdressers, ladies corsets and general haberdashery, spirits, property rentals & sales, and asbestos sheeting. There is an amusing advert from a self-cured deaf person offering free samples of his personal medicinal potion. Also published are the steamer & shipping schedules, various notifications of arriving and departing administrative personnel and managers, as well several large pictorial advertisements for LIEBIG Extract of Meat, LEA & PERRINS Worcestershire Sauce, CLARKES World Famous BLOOD MIXTURE, and the AMERICAN EVAPORATOR. There are articles on taxation, the visit of Bishop Vidal, the Magistrates hearing on a fire above the Bank of New Zealand, and a report on escaped prisoners in Tonga. The most important article deals with a native war in Samoa and the subsequent naming of a new King. The native war was between the Government forces of King Tamasese and rebels allied to the deposed former King Malietoa. It began with a small skirmish between the rebels and Tamasese soldiers near Apia in August of 1888. Following this fight the victorious rebels received large reinforcements.
Captain Leary of the USS Adams met with rebel leaders including Chief Mataafa to ensure that neither Europeans nor their property would be harmed in the uprising and threatened US Naval reprisal. The rebel leaders offered to behead their own troops in case of offense but requested US intervention against the Tamasese military which Capt. Leary wisely refused. The main rebel attack commenced in the early afternoon against a Tamasese fortification at Matauto near Apia. After serious fighting the rebels caused heavy casualties and pushed the Government troops into the sea. The rebels entered Apia, which was immediately secured by a company of German Marines from HIMS Adler. The writer then reports “with great pleasure“ that no Foreigners were harmed during the fighting with exception of a German sailor wounded in the mouth by a stray bullet and the regretted Captain Bisset, felled on the steps of Mr. Caruthers veranda yet again by a stray shot. The rebels named Chief Mataafa to the throne and the wounded were cared for in Apia by surgeons from HIMS Adler and USS Adams as well as by Mr. Smith, a visiting medical person. The death of Captain Bisset and his funeral in Samoa are fully described in another article.

Fiji, Polynesia. Tapa (broussonetia papyrifera) and ink. +/- 59 x 46 cm. 19th century. See one dated February 27, 1915 in Meyer, Fig. 538, p. 469 and another dated Tuesday October 27, 1885 in Phelps, PL. 106, p. 193.

Ref.: Clunie, Fergus: YALO i VITI. Fiji Museum, Suva. 1986. Meyer, Anthony JP: OCEANIC ART. Könemann Verlag, Köln. 1995. Phelps, Steven: ART AND ARTEFACTS OF THE PACIFIC, AFRICA, AND THE AMERICAS-THE JAMES HOOPER COLLECTION. Hutchinson & Co. LTD. and Christies, Manson & Woods, London. 1975.