In Western Samoa

Condition of the Planting Industry

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

Apia, October 22.

LIKE other cocoanut-growing countries, Western Samoa to-day is feeling the effects of the present low price of copra in the Home and Continental markets. The market price to-day— which is the price in Europe after freight, etc., has been paid—is really what the planter should be receiving on the plantation, in order that a reasonable profit might be shown, yet, ever optimistic, planters face the position all square, and hope for improvement.

The biggest producers of copra are the Samoans, but the low price offered for the product does not encourage them to produce too heavily. In some districts there has been a falling off in supply. But these conditions will alter, as at times circumstances compel the native to produce in order to get ready cash.

It is from copra sales, mainly, that the native collects money. Sometimes he needs money pretty badly—i.e., when with other villagers he considers a new church should be built, or when a collection for Church Missions is required, of maybe communal requirements demand ready cash. Having little other means of raising money, it is to copra making that they apply themselves.

Cocoa Production

Although there is a fair tonnage of cocoa beans produced in the Territory, the Samoans do not pay much attention to a cocoa production. It is not an easy crop to produce, requiring experience in growing, and in the fermentation and drying processes essential to a first-class marketable product. Cocoa plantations are therefore controlled only by Europeans with the necessary experience, and cocoa to-day is helping

them to balance their ledger on the right side.

Cutting out and drying of copra are simple processes as compared with cocoa and its intricate methods of preparation for market. To the Samoan, the making of copra is easy; it is a labour that suits his temperament.

Easy-going to a degree, he finds he can employ on the job all other members of his family. Consequently, his cost of production is nil, in that he does not have to pay a monthly wage bill.

The Reparations Estates

Likely to be hard-hit by the unfavourable market prices is the large acreage of cocoanut under cultivation by the New Zealand Reparation Estates, but as middleman’s profits hardly enter into the proposition, the Estates are likely to come out with a small margin of profit, as against the copra-buying firms who purchase direct from the native grower. Although maintaining a general manager, an office staff of several clerks, and plantation managers and overseers, and a big army of Chinese coolies and Solomon Island boys, the N.Z. Reparation Estates are in a fairly sound position and should be able to show a satisfactory report at the end of the year.

The big drop in copra prices affects merchants very considerably, as the spending power of the native to-day is about half of what it was a year ago.

The general impression here is that unless the cost of production can be lessened there will not be much margin of profit until the market price in London and the Continent rises to some where about £20 a ton, and is maintained at that figure.

However, we are fortunate in Samoa insofar that we have a valuable alternative crop in bananas. This industry is described in another article. ———