Samoa's Trade in 1941

OWING to war conditions, the usual statistics relating to the trade and commerce of Western Samoa in 1941 have not been published. The Apia Chamber of Commerce, however, has issued the following summary:— Net collections of import and export duties and port and service tax at £50,488 were less by £l9 than in 1940. The financial year which ended on March 31, 1941, closed with a deficit of £2,292, com pared with the estimated deficit of £11,262.

For the year ending March 31, 1942, the Budget estimates expenditure at £110,448 and revenue at £87,750. A de ficit of £22,698 is thus expected. Of the estimated expenditure, public debt charges absorb about 9 per cent., admin istrative departments 36 per cent., social services 38 per cent., and public works and lands and survey 17 per cent. This percentage analysis entirely disregards the post and telegraph, labour, and public trust departments as self-supporting trading services.

In January, 1942, the rebate on cocoa export duty was altered; the full duty of £2 a ton becomes payable when the value f.o.b. reaches £4O a ton.

At the beginning of March, 1942, the full scale of copra export duty was again imposed. This is a sliding scale; the maximum duty of £l/10/- a ton on native produced copra becomes payable when the f.o.b. Apia value reaches £ll a ton, and the maximum duty of £1 a ton on Euro pean produced copra is payable when the f.o.b. Apia value reaches £lO/5/- a ton.

Mrs. Heighway, widow of the late Mr.

W. A. Heighway, Lakeba, Fiji, died recently in Sydney. Both Mr. and Mrs.

Heighway were well-known in Fiji as Methodist Mission workers.