A.—4

15

High Cottbt of Western Samoa, at Apia. Return of Criminal Cases for the Year ended 31st March, 1930 : Sitting-days, 237 ; persons charged, 776 ; convictions recorded, 590; dismissed on merits, 88 ; withdrawn by leave of Court, 106. Return of Civil Cases for the Year ended 31st March, 1930 : Sitting-days, 96 ; actions filed, 444 ; actions heard, 515 ; judgment given, 437 ; withdrawn or struck out by leave of Court, 91. Note.—The greater number of criminal cases withdrawn and dismissed as compared with the Police Department's returns is accounted -for by prosecutions by the Produce Inspector, contempt-of-Court cases, and occasionally private prosecutions, which are not conducted by the police. CUSTOMS AND MARINE DEPARTMENT. The trade statistics for the calendar year 1929 show a considerable decrease in comparison with the year 1928. The total trade is £582,787, as compared with £748,728, for the previous year, a decrease of £165,941. In 1928, however, the total trade was outstandingly high. The average for the five years prior to the calendar year 1928 was £641,065, in comparison with which 1929 shows a decrease of £58,278. The principal factor for the decrease was the fall in price of the primary products of the Territory, and the instructions issued from time to time by the Mau organization for cessation of copra-production have had some, but not a sustained, effect. The total export of copra was 12,941 tons, being 3,048 tons less than in 1928, but only 83 tons less than the average for the preceding five years. The export for the year ended the 31st March, 1930, was 14,071 tons. It is generally believed that the climatic conditions for island produce were not so favourable in 1.929 as in 1928. Revenue. The total amount collected by the Department during the financial year amounted to £88,581, as compared with £88,308 fpr the financial year 1928-29, an increase of £273. From the amount collected in the financial year of 1929-30 the sum of £3,356 3s. was refunded through the Treasury under the following headings : Import duties, £96 ss. 6d. (including duty on goods for Tokelau Islands, credited to Tokelau account £81, and refunds on radio apparatus —now discontinued-—£ls) ; export duty, copra, £2,402 16s. 7d.; export duty, rubber, £836 14s. Id. ; and taxes, £20 6s. lOd. (due to adjustment of values on reassessments). The increased export duty of 10s. per ton on copra, operative from the 6th May, 1929, was refunded on copra produced from European-owned lands. Owing to the low price of rubber in the overseas markets, the duty of Id. per pound was refunded to all producers. The following are the receipts under the principal headings, showing a comparison with year 1928-29

The increase in export duty is accounted for by the additional 10s. per ton levied on copra exported from May, 1929. The increase in miscellaneous receipts is mostly in connection with the sale of medicinal liquor ; this is not because of any material increase in the quantities of liquor sold, but results from slightly higher prices charged and a change in the allocation of the sale priceb fixed under clause 3of the Samoa Sale of Intoxicating Liquor Regulations, 1920. It had been the practice to fix the sale prices of liquor at approximately the current retail rates operative in New Zealand, and

1928-29. 1929-30. Increase. Decrease. £ £ £ £ Import duties .. .. .. .. 55,714 46,165 .. 9,549 Export duties— — Copra .. .. .. .. .. 14,031 20,602 Cocoa .. .. .. .. .. 1,639 1,814 Rubber .. .. .. .. .. 837 Beehe-de-mer .... .. .. 13 15,683 23,253 7,570 Shipping fees .. .. .. .. 2,499 2,468 .. 31 Leases, wharfages, &c. .. .. .. 2,076 1,435 .. 641 Taxes .. .. .. .. .. 9,806 10,402 596 Miscellaneous, including sale of medicinal liquor 2,530 4,858 2,328 Totals .. .. .. 88,308 88,581 10,494 j 10,221 Less .. .. .. .. .. .. 10,221 Net increase .. .. .. .. .. 273