W. Samoa's valuable timber

deal is signed at last

From an Apia correspondent More than three years of negotiation and often bitter controversy culminated in Apia on March 19 when the Western Samoan Government and the US firm of Potlatch Forests Inc signed an agreement aimed at developing a multi-million dollar timber industry on the island of Savai’i.

Potlatch claims that if all goes well, within a few years the Samoan economy could benefit to the tune of s3i million annually—not much less than the entire national budget at present.

The agreement was signed by Western Samoa’s Prime Minister, Mata’afa, and Mr. Benton Cancell, president of Potlatch.

The signing took place at Pilot Point before several hundred legisla tors and members of the public in an atmosphere of official confidence and lingering private scepticism about the future.

“I am of the firm belief that this will be for the good of our people.

It will boost our economy and bring mutual benefits to ourselves and Potlatch,” the Prime Minister said.

Mr. Cancell said: “I feel sure this partnership will become a model programme for the relationship be tween a manufacturing corporation and an industrially undeveloped nation.”

40-year contract

Under the contract, which is initially for 40 years, the company intends to invest some $3 million over the next two years. In these two years, it will build a sawmill and veneer plant at Asau along with roads and other facilities to handle an annual harvest of 15 million board feet of lumber.

Within the following three years Potlatch plans to double its invest ment to $6 million and more than triple its timber processing capacity to 50 million board feet annually.

Western Samoa will get 25 per cent, of the net profits from lumber for the first 10 years of operation, in lieu of income tax. After that Potlatch will pay taxes as levied by the Government.

The general manager of Potlatch, Mr. K. Floan, said that a start on the mill would not be made until the company was assured of a minimum amount of timber supplies to ensure success.

He said there had to be a mini mum of 15 million board feet for 10 years and this would require timber leases to 15,000 acres in addition to government land.

He set October 1 as a target date by which sufficient leases should be arranged to enable a start on the mill. The building of the mill is expected to take about a year.

The project will initially employ 14 Stateside personnel and 125 Samoans.

Replanting problem

“With proper management 150,000 to 200,000 acres could produce 100 million board feet of lumber every year indefinitely,” Mr. Floan said.

The planting programme will be the responsibility of the newly created forestry section of the Samoan Government, with advisory assistance from Potlatch. The govern ment will also arrange timber leases on customary lands with the Minister of Lands acting as trustee.

Potlatch is a 60-year old company with timber resources in the United States of 1,300,000 acres. In 1966 it had sales of $267 million. This is its first venture outside the United States.

To many people in Samoa, the Potlatch deal with its massive in jection of cash, its employment and income opportunities, and inevitable widespread economic benefits, repre sents the first real breakthrough in the struggle to improve living standards that has been the main pre occupation of the government since independence six years ago.

To others it is just one more threat to the old way of life. • P-NG’s Chief Crown Prosecu tor, Mr. Oliver John Shaw, 55, on March 15 was fined $5O for having driven under the influence of liquor and was disqualified from driving for three years. He pleaded guilty in a Port Moresby court.