Survey will decide where
p. 26 · Read in the full issue
American Samoa is going
A firm of economic consultants is to undertake a full economic survey of American Samoa to assist the administration in planning the territory’s future. A Washington grant of SUSI 10,000 for the survey was approved in April. The name of the firm is expected to be announced in a few weeks and the survey will begin shortly after, and take from six to nine months.
Governor Owen Aspinall said in Pago Pago that the main value of the survey would be to establish a methodical plan for Samoa’s economical development, “so that we are not undoing the things we did a few years ago”.
He said that “one of the things we have needed here most is long range planning, and as I see it this survey will bring about just that.
We are going to find out where we are, where we’ve come from, and where we want to go. Sometimes we can be too close to the trees to see the forest.”
The Governor added that the study would include, and would respect, Samoan custom and tradition. He had “no intention of pushing the culture of the Western world on to anyone”.
President of the American Samoa Senate Lauvao Lolo, his wife and the High Chief Leiato lull, Secretary of Samoan Affairs, were among 90 Samoans who flew to Hono lulu in April for the Samoan Flag Day ceremony, marking the first raising of the US flag in Ameri can Samoa on April 20, 1900.
Photo: Pan Am.