Help Begins To Arrive

Arrive For Devastated Samoa

From an Apia Correspondent The independent state of Western Samoa, short of food and money as a result of the recent devastating hurricane, is getting overseas aid to help restore stocks of both.

THE Minister for Finance, Mr.

G. F. D. Betham, announced in presenting his supplementary esti mates in mid-May, that loss of earn ings resulting from the severe damage to crops would probably result in a deficit in the budget of £5tg.220,470.

This is to be funded from reserves, which at the beginning of the year stood at £389,112.

Mr. Betham said that shipments of bananas this year would be unlikely to exceed 140,000 cases as against a pre-hurricane estimate of 550,000 cases. This represents a loss in ex port earnings of £535,000.

Cocoa earnings were also expected to be down. Although copra produc tion may be about the same as last year, falling prices augured lower warnings.

Mr. Betham said that panic neasures had been avoided.

“Taking all factors into account an ;stimated deficit of £220,470 is a /ery satisfactory result in the cir mmstances,” he said.

Meanwhile, Samoa has had the first esponse for its call for a £200,000 igriculture restoration loan.

New Zealand has given £Stg. 100,000. fhis comprises a loan of £75,000, nterest-free for the first three years, )lus a grant of £25,000.

The Government has already taken teps to organise a restoration pro ;ramme in agriculture, using the ‘ 100,000. The programme will be upervised by the Bank of Western lamoa.

Word has also come from the US Itate Department that it is “seriously onsidering” the Western Samoan re uest for assistance. President John on announced a total hurricane grant o American Samoa of $U51,735,750.

American Samoa was hit at the same ime as Western Samoa.

The money shortage is being felt very where.

Apia stores are already complain ts that the severe cut in their alloca-

tion of foreign exchange following the hurricane is seriously affecting business and likely to cause staff lay offs.

The Economic Development De partment released figures showing that the total amount of money re ceived by villagers from sales of copra and bananas and from per sonal receipts for the first quarter of this year was £350,500. This com pares with £536,650 for the same period last year.

By early May stocks of rice in Apia were exhausted and the next shipment from Australia was not ex pected until June.

Food Production low

This was a “conclusive sign that village food production is low and that people are coming in from the villages to buy rice and other essential commodities in Apia,” claimed the Economic Development Department.

In May, word was received in Apia that emergency food supplies to the value of over SUS6OO,OOO had been approved for free distribution under the World Food Programme in Samoan villages.

This is about three times more than the Government asked for.

The gift is enough to give 52,000 hurricane victims, or about half the population, a nutritionally sound daily diet for four months. Samoa’s food shortage is expected to be relieved by September.

Certainly nobody in Western Samoa appears to be particularly hungry, but according to the director of the World Food Programme, Dr. A. H. Boerma,

food assistance to needy countries should be viewed as good business and not charity.

He said food assistance should be considered a necessary part of economic development aid, and that the gift of food would permit de veloping countries to turn their atten tion to projects beyond the primary level of survival.

This emergency programme is sep arate from a large-scale plantation rehabilitation programme now being planned with World Food Programme assistance. Under this programme food will be supplied to be used in stead of cash as wages.

Preliminary distribution of the com paratively small relief food supplies which already have arrived from the New Zealand Red Cross brought many complaints by villages and in dividuals who either did not receive what they considered a fair share, or did not get any at all.

Distribution has been taken out of the hands of a committee set up for this purpose and is now under the personal supervision of Prime Minister Mataafa.

It is expected that banana exports will start on a regular basis in June, steadily picking up as new plantings come into production. Cocoa trees are reported to be recovering well but no production is expected until October.

Acting UN Regional Advisor for the SW Pacific, Mr. B. A. Claussen, in Apia in May hands Prime Minister Fiame Mataafa a letter informing him of the gift from the World Food Programme.

Photo: Samoana.