W. Samoa, Too, Has High

Cost Of Living

From Our Own Correspondent

Apia, Apr. 11

IN common with the rest of the world, Western Samoa is suffering from a largely increased cost of living, with growing dissatisfaction on the part of people who are on fixed wages and salaries.

A comparison of prices charged for es sential foodstuffs in 1939 with those charged to-day shows that there is an overall increase of about 60 per cent.

although prices are fixed by a stabilisa tion board.

Primary producers, both European and Samoan, are benefiting from the high prices they are obtaining for their pro ducts and merchants and traders are benefiting from the planters. It is left for the wage slave to try to make ends meet and to wonder when the New Zea land government will make good its pledge of several years ago to create an arbitra tion board to regulate wages and salaries.

It is rumoured that further increases in meat, sugar and flour prices will come into force shortly; the price of clothing of all kinds has already risen greatly.

The BP islands vessel “Montoro” left Port Moresby at 6 a.m. on May 11, and is due in Sydney on May 17. From Rabual the vessel lifted 650 tons of copra and from Madang took aboard 400 tons of copra. Her next trip will be to Port Moresby, Samarai and Lae and return.

Frazer-Leslie

Wedding

An informal photograph taken as the bridal party left Wesley College Chapel, Melbourne, after the marriage of Miss Beryl Frazer, formerly of Wau, New Guinea, to Mr. Henry Watson Leslie, of NSW, on March 8.