fforts to Boost

Samoan banana Production

Prom Our Own Correspondent APIA, March 16. 3HE March Tofua arrived in ■ Auckland, New Zealand, with e smallest cargo of island bananas i record. She carried only 5,000 ses of the fruit instead of the ual 25,000, due mainly to the ects of the recent hurricane and ong winds in Fiji and Tonga, and decrease in production and a short e of Samoan foodstuffs in Western moa.

To stimulate banana production in estern Samoa, the Government has w decided to pay growers the cost transport from the point of collec >n to the wharf.

The new arrangement will come to force with shipments by the >ril Tofua.

There is a pronounced shortage of nanas for local consumption and udents of Apia are frequently able to buy them for household