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p. 11 · Read in the full issue
W. Samoa Boom
Prom Our Own Correspondent
Apia, Mar. 24.
HIGH cocoa and copra prices continue in Western Samoa. The spending power of both European and Sam oan growers is boosted thereby and trad ing conditions are very bright.
However, to balance this we are threat ened with an acute shortage of sugar and flour that is to come on the “Waihemo’’ which is delayed in Sydney. Impending also, is a soap famine, due, it is said, to lack of raw materials in New Zealand.
Supplies of raw sugar, biscuits and soap from Fiji sources have been curtailed due to lack of cargo space on the “Matua.”
Latest price quoted for first grade cocoa beans is now £l9O per ton and may soon reach £2OO. These prices are records. Unfortunately, we are now in the off season for cocoa beans and only small quantities are delivered to Apia sheds.
The last large shipment, 230 tons of cocoa beans, was shipped by the “Wai kawa” which left Apia for Auckland on March 13.