CONDITIONS IN SAMOA.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20539, 14 February 1935, Page 11

CONDITIONS IN SAMOA.

Returns Submitted to House by Mr Forbes. <“ Star ” Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Two returns dealing with social conditions in Samoa were tabled in the House by Mr Forbes yesterday.. According to one return, there are twenty-three indentured labourers engaged as domestic servants in the territory, eight of them being employed in Government departments, and the remainder by private employers. All are males, and all Chinese. Their term of engagement is three years, and the daily hours of work are nine and a half. Of the men employed in the Government departments, four work as cooks, two as laundrymen and two as houseboys. Private employers have in engagement twelve cooks and three houseboys. The wages of the Government departments’ employees are: Cooks £3 12s 6d to £4 a month; laundrymen £3; houseboys £3 10s. The earnings of the privately employed Chinese are: Cooks £3 to £4 a month; houseboys £3 to £3 10s a month. Six Europeans were unemployed in Samoa between January 1, 1933, and June 30, 1934, stated the second return, which added that the number of halfcastes out of work was unknown as no system of registration existed. No relief work or remuneration was given, but sustenance was granted to appropriate cases.