Living Costs

Western Samoa's Rising Living Costs Salaried Workers, Govt. Employees Hard Hit

APIA, March 1 RECENT price increases have been made on such essential foodstuffs as flour, rice, sugar, bread, milk, canned meats, soap and a large variety of other necessities.

The cost of living is rising continu ously and it is contended that it is ap preciably higher than in Fiji. Wage and salary earners, government officials, as well as private employees are hard hit by the rise and it is felt that some thing should be done to bring wages and salaries into line with the high cost of living.

New Zealanders as well ad local officials are greatly dissatisfied with the attitude of the New Zealand Gov ernment towards their plight. It is claimed that Administration employees are unable to make ends meet at present and that many of them are getting into debt. It was hoped that the special commission which visited Samoa from New Zealand five months ago to inves tigate conditions here would help Gov ernment officials, but surprisingly, noth ing whatever has transpired so far, and the situation has become worse in the meantime.

The shortage of laundry soap has been an unpleasant feature of the last few weeks. Patients in Apia Govern ment hospital have been asked to bring their own soap supplies along, and many people have had to use the small re maining supplies of toilet soap to wash their clothes. Samoa will in future be mainly dependent on soap supplies from New Zealand where soap is also in short supply. Fiji, New Zealand and Aus tralia are suffering from a shortage of caustic soda, essential in soap making.

Some supplies of laundry soap are ex pected to arrive in Apia by the next “Matua”.