SAMOAN POLITICS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 662, 14 May 1929, Page 11

SAMOAN POLITICS

TOO MUCH WRITTEN PLANTATIONS GOING AHEAD MORE CAPITAL NEEDED Far too much has been written about politics in Samoa. It has tended to give the trouble more prominence than it warrants. “What began with more or less private disagreements has now involved everyone from the natives to the League o£ Nations.” These statements were made this afternoon on the Tofua by Mr. A. R. Cobcroft. managing director of Samoan Planters, Limited, who is on his way to Europe via Java and Ceylon. Mr. Cobcroft is accompanied by Mr. K. Meyer, also a planter from Samoa. . Both Mr. Cobcroft and Mr. Meyer have been planters in Samoa since 1911 and have seen the development of the trouble on the island. “Capital is wanted in Samoa to form roads and to open up the country. This is Samoa's greatest need. No capital has come into the country since 1914,” said Mr. Cobcroft. The plantations in Samoa are not going back, as so often has been reported. That is nonsense —they are improving. All the plantations are capably and economically managed.” Both Mr. Cobcroft and Mr. Meyer were prime movers in the formation of Samoan Planters, Ltd. Many of the planters were dissatisfied with prices from the merchants and decided to form their own organisation, which has proved a great success. Both men are cocoa irlanters and are doing very well. Mr. Cobcroft stated that there are about 3,000 acres planted in cocoa, and that between 900 and 1,000 tons were produced each year.

The planters stated that their cocoa commanded top price on the world market, and the only thing needed to improve conditions in Samoa was more capital. Neither Mr. Mayer nor Mr.'Cobcroft would discuss the politics of Samoa except to say that too much had been said already. Private quarrels had now reached world-wide dimensions. The Mau had developed a campaign of passive resistance. The natives belonging to that organisation read in their own newspapers what had been published about Samoa in New Zealand, and this tended to keep the trouble alive.