ISLAND TRIP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18352, 9 March 1920, Page 7

ISLAND TRIP.

P ARMAMENTARY PARTY IN SAMOA. [P£r Press Association.] (By Wireless.) APIA, March 7. On Saturday morning Die party toured the State schools and various mission schools. Tho result of the missionaries’ efforts is that all Sainoans-can read and Avrite their OAvn language, and English is noAV generally taught. The native chiefs were entertained at luncheon on the Mokoia. In the afternoon, members visited Vailima and Stevenson’s tomb, the Avireless station and the geophysical observatory, Avhere the visiting scientists were delighted with the scope and value of the work undertaken.

To-day, Avhich is the Samoan Saturday, members motored to plantations, visiting an estate where there is a fairly plentiful supply of labour, and later a property on which before the war thero wore 294 indentured labourers, and now twelve former employees, forty-one Chinese and seven Samoan woman. The Chinamen weed and prone the cocoa trees and pick the pods. Their pay is about £2 10s per month. The women break the pods and remove the seeds prior to the process of drying. They receive three shillings per day. The party inspected tho workers’ quarters and, through an interpreter, closely questioned the indentured men. The Chinese are not permitted, so far, to bring wives from China. Some have Samoan wives- A second plantation was a wilderness, choked witli tropical undergrowth, and the homestead dismantled. The f<Lv remaining indentured labourers pick cocoa pods where tho trees have survived, Avhile the rubber is practically untapped. Planters state that the solution is more labour. They estimate that a thousand additional indentured labourers are needed immediately.

In the afternoon the Samfians gave a feast. There were generous supplies of taro, plantains, pigs, poultry and fish. Members partook of the meal in native fashion. There was a great display of tribal dancing. European residents were entertained on th© Mokoia in tho evening at a ball. Tho Mokoia will take in a cargo of sugar at Suva and probably will reach Auckland on March 22. The weather i 3 hot, hut all the members of the party are well.