PRODUCTS OF SAMOA

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIII, Issue LXVIII, 22 October 1914, Page 5

PRODUCTS OF SAMOA

The copra output of the Samoan Islands taken from Germany is now in the neighborhood of 14,000 tons per annum, and copra is worth on the average about £20 a ton, though the price has dropped of late. When the Germans first appeared in Samoa, in 1900, the output was about 6000 tons'; it is probable that it will approach 20,000 tons in four or five years' time. Cocoa is now being extensively cultivated, and the crop this year per acre has been enormous, approaching 10001b per acre. Samoan cocoa, at the beginning of the war, was worth £74 to £80 per ton in Hamburg and London. The trees usually reach a paying basis in five years. It is not until they are seven years old that cocoanuts are in profitable bearing, but it is the practice after the fifth year of planting to run cattle under them, and the increase of the cattle pays the expenses. Good land can be leased in Samoa for from 2s to 4s per acre, according to it accessibility. A cocoanut property.in full bearing, and well fenced, is worth from £40 to £60 per acre. The output per acre is from 9cwt to half a ton. Rubber also does well in Samoa, and there are between 2000 and 3000 acres under-cultivation. There is practically no such thing as a disputed land title in Samoa. The International Land Commission which sat in 1893 and 1894 settled all the land troubles. But there is a good deal of surveying still to be done, -so as to fix the boundaries accurately.