SAMOA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 120, 20 April 1934, Page 6

SAMOA.

The Pacific Islands are among the territories which have suffered much in the economic vicissitudes of recent years, because of the extremely low prices offering for their products. Very few, if any, have reached a stage of cultivating semi-manufacturing industries—their mainstay is the export of raw material, and particularly in the copra trade has there been an acute setback. In this respect New Zealand’s fos-ter-child, the Mandated Territory of Western Samoa, has had to face dwindling- trade, but it is encouraging to learn from Mr H. E. Hart, the Administrator of the Territory, who is at present visiting- New Zealand, that these conditions are being met and that it has been able to balance its Budget for the past two years. This may not seem of considerable account to residents of the Dominion, but it is an achievement which connotes a ready desire to meet the difficulties which present themselves, and prevent a policy of drift into financial trouble, which is an easy course to follow at any time. True, there is a shortage of money in the Territory, but the natives are in the happy position of being able to live with little of that commodity over which European countries are distressed; they have no rent to pay and no taxes to meet. The European section of the community finds conditions different, however, but through concessions made by the Administration m export duties they have been given a measure of relief which compensates to a degree for the low prices they are obtaining on glutted markets where purchasing power at a low figure. A reduction of over eighty per cent, in the export duty on copra has been effected within the last six months, while the levy on export cocoa has been wholly remitted. It is in these two commodities that world market conditions have hit Samoa the hardest, for the cocoa and copra trades are her two main industries. With a brightening up of world conditions it is to be hoped that Samoa, with the rest of the primary producing countries, will make better headway. Meantime, the Administration is playing its part in affording relief by remissions of taxation. It is worth noting that there is at least one bright spot in the Territory’s industries —the banana market is yielding payable prices to-day, and with the assistance afforded by the New Zealand Government much is being gained from this source. The provision of adequate shipping facilities by this Dominion has enabled the trade to forge ahead.