Copra Trade
p. 85 · Read in the full issue
He's Nominated As [?]her of S. Pacific Copra Trade
ter searching through old
lesian records lately for cer historical material, I am ed to hand to the famous
lan, Theodore Weber, the
>f Father of the Pacific copra
try.
HT from the commencement if South Pacific trading, 130 r ears ago, coconut oil was a product of the South Seas — e traders bought it wherever found it. But it was bought and shipped in small casks, nders generally were en ?ed to produce it by resident s, by trading ships which irregularly, and by the early naries. The coconuts were r broken up, thrown onto tar s stretched across sticks, and i the hot sun. The oil, which I through into containers was ito barrels, and carried away. method was expensive, and aality was not exactly FMS. the 1860’s, the system was ing. The traders found it easier to ship and carry the kernel itself (copra) in bags; len crushing mills were estab in Europe the millers soon ered that there was a profit narket for coconut meal. ; change, of course, was going 0 in coconut areas other than Duth Seas; but the new idea ;eized upon immediately by ore Weber, in Samoa.
Tremendous Energy
er, a mere youth, was left in : of the Godeffroy (Hamburg) when August Unshelm was ed in a hurricane between nd Samoa, in March, 1864; le devoted his tremendous es and his organising genius .blishing more and more Ger rading stations all over the Pacific islands, and en ing the traders to buy copra 1 of coconut oil. 880, the Godeffroy empire (it meantime had become the id PG Company) was spread .cross the South Seas, and the )f its huge trade was copra, er (who died in Germany in was a man of fine character utstanding ability. Wherever a chance, he bought Samoan or his Company, and it was ;o carefully that most of his to 150,000 acres in Samoa
were accepted by the International Land Commission in 1891, and titles granted accordingly.
Weber started the systematic planting of those rich lands with coconuts. After World War I, under New Zealand, the plantations be came part of the famous Repara tions Estates; and the latter today are the backbone of the finance of the new self-government of Samoa.
—Rwr.
Rear-Admiral Richard Evenou. commander of the French Navy in the Pacific, escaped injury when his car and another collided near Apia, Samoa, in January. Two occupants of the other car were slightly in jured.