Western Samoa's

A Small Bone For Western Samoa's Public Servants

From R. F. Rankin in Apia After a year of patient waiting : the Government to act on its plication for a pay rise, the estem Samoa Public Service ;sociation was finally thrown a ry small bone on the eve of

tat promised to be a fiery

nual general meeting.

JRPRISINGLY, the bone proved big enough to draw applause m the 40-odd assembled mem s. fhe public servants were granted general increase of 7i per cent, respective to January 1 this year, ereas the association had asked for increase of 17i per cent., with 1\ cent, retrospective to January 1, >4. \ccording to Treasury official John :ndt, the pay increase will add ),000 to the annual salary bill of t over £1,000,000. since the last pay rise in 1959, Cost of Living Index on which ffic service salaries are supposed to based has shown an increase of >ut 18 per cent. This means, in ;ct, that real wages for public ser ifs are now down about 10 per it.

"Poor State"

‘lt is a matter of having to accept small rise because of the poor te of Government finances,” said vly-elected association president, lemene Aiolupo.

Fhis is only half the story. The fact that the Public Service Association according to its annual report “the ly recognised workers’ union in uoa” —is so weak and so lacking militancy that it had no option t to accept whatever the Govern nt gave it.

During the last year, its member p among the 2,000-strong public vice shrank from 553 to 313.

“Our main objective now is to ng more members into the asso tion,” Palemene says.

A special committee has been set to look into the reasons for the 1 in membership and to start a ye aimed at getting 1,500 members ring the coming year.

Only with stronger membership and unity, some committee members think, will Samoan public servants be able to emulate their Tahitian breth ren whose general strike early this year resulted in significant increases all round. ( PIM, Feb., p. 29).

Other new officials elected at the general meeting were: M. Kleis, sec retary; A. Stanley, treasurer; Tuioti S. and Fuiono A., vice-presidents. ☆ ☆ ☆ AGRICULTURE in Samoa, and much of the Pacific, is likely to get a much-needed boost in efficiency from a 15-day symposium on plant diseases held in Apia in the latter half of May.

Sponsored by the Institute of Tech nical Interchange of the East West Center, University of Hawaii, the course was organised and directed by Dr. Horace Clay.

Participants included 35 Western Samoans, mostly from the Agricul ture Department, and representatives from Guam, Okinawa, Tonga, Cook Islands, American Samoa and Fiji.

The 10 lecturers at the course in cluded top men in the field of tropi cal plant diseases from Fiji, Thai land, New Zealand, Philippines and Hawaii.

Interchange Of Ideas

The course was held during school holidays at Avele Agricultural Col lege, and, to promote the maximum interchange of ideas, all the staff and most of the participants, including local people, had to live in at Avele, using the students’ quarters and din ing room.

The scope of the course included study on the major diseases of bana nas, cocoa, coconuts, papaw, pine apple, taro and sugar cane.

It also included discussions on and demonstrations of known methods of disease control, popular fungicides, and the control of disease by breed ing.

The Samoan Government provided the accommodation, the meeting place and local transportation. Most of the other expenses were borne by the East West Center. • A documentary film on life and developments in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony is to be made early in July by Dr. Geoffrey Morey. The cost of the film will be paid for by Colonial Development and Welfare Fund.