Dollar-prosperity Has
p. 20 · Read in the full issue
Setback in W. Samoa
From Our Own Correspondent
Apia, Nov. 20.
OWING to changed war conditions in . the Pacific, trade and industry in Western Samoa, though still pros perous, have slumped somewhat lately!
The curio, basket, mat, hula-skirt and— last, but not least—the bush-gin indus try are all suffering from a temporary depression. Restaurants, formerly verit able gold-mines, are not doing quite so well, either.
A certain foreign currency is no more bundled about in high stacks and— strange to behold—one occasionally meets Samoan maidens without uniformed company. Cash sales in Apia stores have dropped 50 per cent, lately, and store keepers, who have ordered huge quanti ties of goods while floating on the high wave of prosperity, are beginning to wonder what to do with their large stocks now, when things are not so rosy.
The labour situation on the plantations has not improved; but planters are patiently waiting for better times, when their strayed sheep of labourers may again be willing to do honest work for a fair wage. Possibly due to the impor tation of large shipments of West African cocoa into the USA, on transports return ing from North Africa and the Mediter ranean, the cocoa price offered to Samoan planters has dropped appre ciably, and stands now at about £65 per ton in Apia. Independent planters are consequently holding their cocoa for bet ter prices.
Residents of Apia—particularly banana growers—are pleased to note that the New Zealand press has taken up the problem of banana prices in Samoa and New Zealand. While the producer in Samoa is paid 5/6 per case, the New Zealand consumer is charged about 6d. per lb., and the middleman, in this case the New Zealand Government, is appar ently unable to explain who gets away with the huge margin between cost and selling price.
Meantime, as far as Samoa is con cerned. the banana industry is dying a natural death, as Samoans as well as Europeans, refuse to ship bananas at the price offered, as they actually get more on the local market or by shipping to Pago Pago.