Coconuts To Make

Samoans Cut Down

Room For Houses

One of the side effects of the population explosion in Western Samoa is that much-needed coco nut trees are being cut down to make way for houses for the grow ing number of families.

The "Samoa Bulletin" said this in an editorial recently urging a vigorous replanting programme to arrest Western Samoa's rapidly declining copra production. The editorial underlined some of Dr.

Cumberland's comments in the accompanying article.

"Undoubtedly the main reason for the decline in production," the editorial said, "is that there has been practically no replanting for over 40 years and the bulk of our coconut palms are well past their prime.

"The 20 lean years of the de pression were no encouragement

to plant, as the future appeared to hold no prospects of the de mand for copra ever approaching

the supply.

"After the Second World War things were completely reversed.

The bulk of the male labour force was off the land earning wages in stead of replanting, and today much of the unpaid labour of the village who harvested and dried the copra—the women and chil dren—have not the material to occupy them fully.

"Other reasons for the decline in production are simple ones and unavoidable. The sensational in crease in the birth rate is a big factor as 110,000 people consume an amazingly large number of nuts in a year when the coconut is one of the staple foods.

"In Samoa we marry at an early age and a young family must have its own home. It is surprising how many coconuts have to be felled to clear a safe site for a fale, as all who travel the roads must have noticed."