and Copra
p. 25 · Read in the full issue
Samoa Gathering
Dollars
High Price of Cocoa and Copra
Apia, Oct. 2.
r[E rainy season this year has set in earlier than usual and heavy rains have fallen during the last few weeks, accompanied by strong winds.
The rainy season is normally expected to set in at Palolo time which this year falls on October 8.
European and Samoan cocoa-planters are looking forward to a very good crop, to be picked ‘shortly. With cocoa quoted at £215 per ton f.o.b. Apia, cocoa-planters doubtless constitute the most prosperous class in the Territory. The high cost of living bothers them little, their only complaint being that it has become in creasingly difficult to find a sufficient supply of Samoan plantation-labour.
While the world, including Britain and Australia, is suffering from a dollar shortage, the Territory of Western Samoa, owing to its exports to the USA of cocoa and copra, has large dollar surpluses.
Only a portion of the dollar credits for cocoa and copra can be used for the im portation of American goods; but Samoan importers hope that in spite of increasing restrictions in New Zealand against importation of American goods, Samoa will be allowed to continue the import of goods from the USA, which are difficult or impossible to obtain from other sources. There would be little ob jection, however, against restrictions on luxury and unessential goods.