Samoa Escapes Many Troubles
p. 37 · Read in the full issue
Care-Free People
From Our Own Correspondent.
APIA, August 3.
AN outsider most certainly observes very little of the hard times in Samoa.
Lately, there have been celebrated a large number of weddings, birthday par ties, dances, picnics, and other festivities, where hundreds of people, dressed in finery, enjoyed themselves and seemed to be happy and contented, and where mostly a marvellous spread of eatables was served in truest Samoan style, with the old well-known hospitality so typical of the South Sea Islands. But appearances are very often deceptive.
A New Zealand business man on a plea sure trip to Samoa, a keen observer and friend of Islands life, pointed out in con versation that the Europeans in Samoa are much better off than the average New
Zealander. The latter has to provide for a heavy burden of various taxes. Clothes, coal, rent, and various other items which are the bane of his every-day life, do not worry the island resident the least bit.
And though life in the Islands is most certainly not what it was 20 years ago and the hardships of the depression have changed things considerably to the worse, yet the worst features of unemployment and suffering are absent and the hustle and bitter competition in the struggle for life are less pronounced than in the more civilised countries.