SAMOAN ADMINISTRATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3765, 11 May 1926, Page 7

SAMOAN ADMINISTRATION.

TAXATION AND EXPENDS TURK. NEED FOR REDUCTION. WELLINGTON, May 5. A visitor to Wellington just now is Mr G. E. L. Westbrook, an elected member of the Samoan Council. He is an outspoken critic of the present Administration. He expressed the opinion that the prospects in Samoa were not as bright as they ought to be, and said he regretted

the lack of European settlers of the right class to carry on the copra, cocoa, and other industries of the Islands. The lack of white settlers of the right class was, in his opinion, due largely to the failure of the authorities to dispose of the Crown estates to active business men. These estates, which were taken over from the Germans at the outbreak of the war, were administered for some year* at a heavy loss. Since the advent of Sir George Richardson (the present Administrator) an improvement, had been effected by economical working, and a reduction in the overhead charges had been made. The Board of Control had removed a great deal of the inefficiency which had previously existed. The success of the new system of managing these propertied had been proved by the considerable profits shown during the past year. In Mr Westbrook’s opinion, some of the departments of the Administration were overstaffed, and there was room for economies to be effected. Mr Westbrook thinks that the taxation in Samoa is toe high. He added that the payment of interest and sinking fund, amounting to 6 per cent, on the loan of £IOO,OOO from the New Zealand/Government, was, in hi* judgment, an undue load for the people to hear, especially when other imposts had also to be borne. The Medical Department, he said, cost £25.000 a year, and although much good work had been done by the doctors in reducing such scourge* as yaws, hookworm, and other tropical diseases, certain economies could also he made in some branches of this work. High praise was given to the labours of the London Missionary Society, the Roman Catholic missionaries, and the Wesleyan Mission. The export duty of £1 a ton on copra and £2 a ton on cocoa beans should, in Mr Westbrook’* opinion, be considerably reduced. These duties, together with increased labbur costs and the high shipping charges, greatly hampered progress in these industries. He stated that it cost nearly as much to ship a ton of cocoa beans to Dunedin as it did to ship it to London. What would the New Zealand primary producers say, he asked, if such an export duty were imposed on their produce?