IN SAMOA

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11225, 2 June 1922, Page 6

IN SAMOA

PARLOUS STATE OF AFFAIRS PESTS AND LOW PRICES OF PRODUCTS. ADMINISTRATION CRITICISED. By Telegraph.—Trees Assn.— CopyrightSYDNEY, June 1. A prominent Samoan trader who is visiting Sydney, -in an interview, referred to tile parions condition of affairs in the mandated territory of Samoa.. The economic condition, he said, was never so bad, principally because cf the plantation peetr, and the low price of products. He saw little hope of improvement, because the labour necessary for working aiul cleaning the plantations was so scarce and dear, (.'anker had such a grip on the cocoa plants that he feared no cocoa would be produced within three or four years, and £500,000 sunk in the industry would be irretrievably lost. Already several thousand acres of rubber plantations had been abandoned because it did not pay to tap the trees. Regarding the administration, while admitting there was a good deal of dissatisfaction, he thought the New Zealand Government had "done as well a 6 any mandatory Power could have done under the circumstances. The Government had shown great care in the selection of the men sent to Samoa. He took exception to tho statement to the Minister for External Affairs, the Hon. E. P. Lee, that if the Government withdrew the prohibition ordinance the dissatisfaction in Samoa would cease. Not all the white inhabitants of Samoa were anti-prohibi-tionists. Personally, he thought prohibition had been very effective, especially in rescuing young half-casten from drink. The people of Samoa resented the imputation that prohibition was the chief cause of their eomplants.