SAMOA IN BAD WAY.

Grey River Argus, 7 June 1922, Page 4

SAMOA IN BAD WAY.

NO MONEY, LABOUR, OR BEER!

I A TRADER’S LAMENTATIONS. SYDNEY, June 1. A prominent Samoan trader visiting Sydney, when interview, referred to the parlous condition of affairs in the mandated territory of Samoa. Her economic condition was never so bad, j principally because of plantation pests I and the low prices of products. He j saw little hope of improvement bej cause the labour necessary for plantations was too scarce and dear. Canker i had such a grip on the cocoa plants i that he feared no cocoa would be produced within three or four years, and j the half a million sunk in the industry i was irretrievably lost. Already sev- ! oral thousand acres of rubber planta--1 tions were abandoned because it did 1 not pay to tap the trees. | Regarding the administration, while ' be a<Unittcd there was a good deal of dissatisfaction, he thought the New Zealand Government had done as well as any mandatory power could have done under the circumstances. The Government had shown great care in the selection of men sent to Samoa. He took exception to a statement by Min- 1 ister Lee that if the Government withdrew the prohibition ordinance, the dissatisfaction in Samoa would cease. Not all the white inhabitants of Samoa were anti-prohibitionists*. Personally, he thought prohibition had been very effective, especially in rescuing young half castes from drinkThe people of Samoa resented the imputation that prohibition was the chief cause of their complaints.