Klinkmüller Family Collection , photographer Gustav Klinkmüller
The only known photo of the Casino Hotel under construction , taken by hobby photographer Mr Gustav Klinkmüller apparently during a weekend when the site was deserted . Mr Stünzner built the hotel with imported American Pine for the sum of 20,000 Marks . The DH & PG enforced a 5-month maximum building period for the hotel , a remarkably tight timeframe which Stünzner was able to meet .
A sweetener in the contract promised that the DH & PG would provide , “ zehn ( 10 ) schwarze Arbeiter unentgeltlich …” – “ ten ( 10 ) black workers free of charge ” to hasten construction . This description for Melanesian workers brought in to Samoa as a labour source was common parlance around the turn of the century . Note the rail system installed to bring construction materials on wagons from the adjoining DH & PG office building and the company wharf at Sogi which were only metres away .
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