Freezer Plant For Tuna
p. 27 · Read in the full issue
In East Samoa
Important Economic Factor
ADDITIONAL refrigeration plant to take care of the fish now being caught in surrounding waters is being constructed in Pago Pago by the Van Camp Sea Food Company Inc., of Terminal Island, California. It is being built in units in the hope that eventually it will be called upon to hold up to 1,200 tons of fish.
Mr. G. P. Ellington, Managing Director, of the Latin American Section of the Company, paid a visit at the end of April. His arrival set afoot reports that his Company was likely to extend its operations to the Western Pacific —but Mr.
Ellington refused to comment.
Mr. Ellington, however, said that the establishment of a branch of his Company’s operations in Pago Pago had added a lively new factor to the economic set-up there. The 7 little ships which were catching fish —primarily tuna—for the Com pany’s depot in Pago Pago em ployed altogether 280 Japanese, who were paid in United States dollars; and already the circulation of those dollars, apart from the operations of the plant itself, had had a good effect on the trading conditions in American Samoa (more or less moribund since the United States Naval establishment was removed from Pago Pago).
Mr. Ellington said that it would take probably a couple of years to properly test out the value of the new industry established by the Van Camp Company in American Samoa. But, assuming that all went well, he thought that the Pago Pago plant in due course would em ploy at least 100 Samoans; while the fresh fish brought in—that is, fish which were not suitable for canning and had to be sold there — would add a valuable protein to the foodstuffs available to the Samoan population.
A Sydney business man, Mr.
A. M. Clubb, well known in some of the Pacific Islands, became on April 4 the 250,000 th passenger carried by Tasman Empire Air ways, and so gained unexpected prizes and privileges. He originally booked to Auckland on April 1, and then deferred his departure from Sydney for three days, when he learned that the weather in Auck land was unpleasant.