SAMOAN PROBLEMS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 40, 16 August 1921, Page 8

SAMOAN PROBLEMS

PRICES OF PRODUCTS

LABOUR AND THE BEETLE.

In an interview with a Post reporter to-day, the Minister of External Affairs (the Hon. E. P. Lee) referred to some of the big problems of Samoa ■which haye bjeen much discussed. Contract labour, he said, was being kept at about the same position as formerly. Some time-expired Chinese labourers ware to be repatriated shortly, and arrangements had been made for their replacement by others. At present the supply of .labour was sufficient to keep the good , plantations in order, but; not sufficient . for development or for bringing into 1 cultivation some of the other plantations which had been allowed to revert to disorder. Development was not contemplated in the meantime, as the ..prices of produce did not warrant a great expenditure. Both for cocoa and copra the market had been -very low, but copra w<',s now recovering, and cocoa, the Minister con- • sidered, was bound to improve in time, "fesenlt prices were below the r.at:iral ,^;vel. It was the same with.the tropical raw products as with won! an-A other produce of temperate countries. The- world markets were depressed. Under such circumstances, i\ was notwise to consider extending the area under production; but it would be most unwise to allow the, valuable plantations to go back for want of proper attention. So far is the rhinoceros beetle was concerned, the Minister bei'eved that this pest was being kept in hand. The system adopted was that of having the whole population engage in weekly searches to destroy the beetle larvae, and 'prevent the beetles from increasing. Constant vigilance was n<ieJed to pre-. vent the beetle from increasingl its hold.