Samoa Enjoys A Trade Boom

Trade Boom

From Our Own Correspondent

Apia, Aug. 10.

OFFICIAL figures show that cocoa exports for the first half of the year of 1951 were 952 tons.

In July, the ss Sonoma lifted an other 520 tons for the USA market, while the ss Moraybank, which left Apia on August 8, took 65 tons for the English market.

Up to date, a total of 1,537 tons of cocoa has been exported this year, and there are at present some 300 to 400 tons awaiting shipment in Apia sheds, a large portion of which will go by the August Matua.

As cocoa exports in 1950 amounted to 1.880 tons, it is confidently hoped, with a very good crop now on the trees and picking starting in Sep tember, that cocoa exports in 1951 will constitute an all-time record, and exceed the previous record of 2 894 tons in 1949. 3,000 tons of cocoa-beans would bring well over £500,000 Sterling into this Territory.

Of the 1,537 tons exported so far, 701 went to Britain, 210 tons to Aus tralia. 60 tons to New Zealand, 15 tons to Italy and 551 tons to the

Usa.

It is hoped that the bulk of the cocoa for the rest of 1951 will go to the USA and provide badly needed dollar currency for impor ters of goods obtainable only from dollar countries. At present, dollar funds available here are completely exhausted and imports from dollar countries (USA and Canada) have been drastically curtailed.

Continuing good prices for the main Samoan products, copra and cocoabeans, are causing an exten sion of trading activities in all parts of the Territory. The number of trading stations in the outside dis tricts of Upolu and Savaii is in creasing rapidly, and in most villages, particularly on the coast west of Apia, there are already four or five trading stations, and new ones are continuously being opened, increasing the already intense com petition and testifying to the favorable trade situation in the country districts.

Meanwhile, the cost of living is rising fast. Wage earners are be coming restless and worried, as foodstuffs—particularly imported meat and local and other essential household necessities —are going up in price from month to month, with out a corresponding rise in wages and salaries.

A HANDSOME trophy, a sterl ing silver cup, was presented to the Marist Brothers’ High School by the parents of two former pupils of the school, John and Roy Ah

Kuoi, who in April of this year were killed in a fatal road accident. The cup is to be awarded to the Dux in Form II of St. Joseph’s High School.

Mr. T. T. Laban, Acting Collector of Customs, has now been ap pointed Collector of Customs. He is the first local official to be appointed to the position. He has been in this Government’s service for over 30 years and is one of its most popu lar officials, Mr. J. H. Luxford, of Auckland, a Senior Magistrate, has retired after 23 years of service. He was

Chief Judge of the High Court here from 1929 to 1934 and, after his re turn to NZ, he continued his in terest in Samoan affairs, and was President of the Samoan Society in Auckland.

The High Commissioner and Mrs.

R. G. Powles returned to Samoa by the Matua on August 8. Mr. Powles had gone to New Zealand on medi cal advice and to recuperate from a recent illness.

Mr. Paul Edmonds, a graduate of Auckland University College, has arrived in Apia to take up the posi tion of private secretary to the High Commissioner.

In a statement published in Wellington, NZ, the High Commis sioner, Mr. R. G. Powles, expressed the opinion that the United Nations Trusteeship Council had quite sin cerely complimented New Zealand’s Administration of Western Samoa.

He pointed out that Samoa had made great strides in education, particularly during the last three years. The policy was to employ as many of the local population as possible in the administration of the area. There are some 76 New Zea landers and 1,500 Samoan officials in the Government service.

The Apia Observatory’s weather shows that June’s rainfall was double the normal figure; while July 22 recorded the lowest tern

perature ever known in Samoa (53.9 deg. Pahr.). The nearest to this was 58.3 deg. Pahr. in August of 1936.

A writer in a widely-circulated Australian weekly praises the way in which Bomana war cemetery, 8 miles from Moresby, is kept. There are 4,000 Australian graves there.

Every village in Fiji is being linked up nowadays by radiophone.

Stations were opened in four islands of the Lau group in July, and before the end of the year another eight will be opened, thus bringing practically every inhabited island of the Lau area into the network.

Stations at Loma Loma and Lakeba were opened last year; and Beqa, Koro and Gau will be in the net work within a few weeks.