SAMOAN ITEMS.
PROP IN COPRA PRICE.
REPATRIATION : oV CHINESE?
''? r(Er6m Our Own C6rrespon<Jent.) APIA, January 28.
During the past week the rainy season has started in earnest, and there have been copious showers and periods of very oppressive heat.
The past week has also brought the bad news that copra has dropped suddenly £2 10/ per ton on the London market, and that cocoa is at present unsaleable, owing to the fact that the brokers.in New York and London who are holding large stocks of Samoan cocoa beans and'are faced by a drop in price are trying, to liquidate their stocks. Fortunately, most of the present crop ift feportecTvto have been sold, aid-.during the present off season only small quantities will bd delivered.
Residents of Western Samoa received a further shock, when, by the last, mails, they were i'nfor/me'd that the prices of sugar, rice, flour 'and', tinned meats had gone up very considerably, and that local selling prices would have to be raised accordingly. Negotiations are at present pending to.raise the wages of CJiinese imported labourers from 1/9 per day to 2/- per dayj though no finality has been reached in the matter. It is etill'very difficult to obtain native Samoan labour for plan-tation-Work. "No news has- been received regarding the intentions of the New Zealand Government in regard to the repatriation of Chinese labour. According to one report, Fiji plantei-3 are negotiating for a batch of 1000 Chinese coolies for the Fiji plantations, and they would probably be only too glad to employ trained coolies now in Samoa, if the New Zealand . Government should not threaten the plantation industry of Western Samoa'by repatriating Chinese labourers.
Mr. J. G. Miedicke has been elected president of the Samoan Planters' Association. .
The Maui Pomare, which is now in port, will lift a full shipment of ■ 7100 cases of Samoan bananas for Wellington, via Niue. ■ At present. there is ample fruit offering for shipment.
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Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 37, 13 February 1937, Page 12
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322SAMOAN ITEMS. Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 37, 13 February 1937, Page 12
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