Samoa’s Budget
p. 145 · Read in the full issue
Tuna Aids Eastern Samoa’s Budget
EASTERN SAMOA’S copra ex ports for the last financial year fell by 410 tons, and curio ex ports by $ll,OOO, but the increasing importance of the tuna fishery is indicated by figures just released at Pago Pago.
These show that exports of tinned tuna and fish meal are rising sharply. The 1953-54 quantities were respectively 8,176 cases and 456 sacks, compared with 66,160 cases and 3,319 sacks in 1954-55. Total export value for 1954-55 was just under $1,000,000.
With 32 Japanese fishing vessels now supplying the cannery, there are 300 Samoans employed ashore.
Trans-Pacific shipping companies are also happy about the new in dustry, which is giving incentive for better shipping connections.
Thorsisle loaded 18,000 cases of tuna in July, and Alameda called to pick up an estimated 40,000 cases in mid-August. t A Norseman aircraft operated by Gibbes Sepik Airways crashed on take-off at Minj, New Guinea, late m August. The pilot, Captain John McDonald, escaped with slight in juries. There were no passengers. t The Tourist Committee of the Port Moresby Chamber of Com merce is considering the distribu tion of pamphlets throughout Aus tralia and later in other parts of the world.