Samoan Cocoa Market
p. 143 · Read in the full issue
From Our Own Correspondent
Apia, Aug. 10.
LAST quotations received for Samoan cocoa beans were £490 Stg. per ton f.o.b. for Ist grade and £4BO to £485 Stg. for second grade.
There are still fair quantities of cocoabeans coming in, though the main crop is expected towards the end of the year. Weather condi tions so far have been favourable.
Diminishing Copra
Exports
Copra production seems to be stagnant or on the decline and com pares unfavourably with the pro duction of copra in Tonga which,
with a smaller area of land and a smaller population, produces more copra than Western Samoa.
This is partly due to the ravages caused by the rhinoceros beetle, which discourage the Samoans from planting new areas in coconuts, and causes them to change over to cocoa and banana cultivation.
A new Central School and Tech nical Centre was opened at Labasa, Fiji, on July 17. The day school provides educational accommodation for 344 Indian boys and 68 girls of classes 6 to 8. Similar schools will soon be built at Ba and Lautoka from a grant of £64,380 provided by the UK Colonial Development and Welfare Fund.