A. Samoa US "irrevocably" linked

American Samoa’s development is predicted as being irrevocably linked to the United States in a report issued by Wolf Management Services of New York.

“Without its close US affiliation American Samoa would be only another picturesque but impoverished archipelago in the South Pacific”, says the report, prepared for the US Economic Development Administra tion.

The 70c(US) an hour minimum wage and high per capita income already has set American Samoa apart from its Polynesian neighbours, says the report. For example, the voluntary minimum in Western Samoa only 80 miles away is USl5c an hour and the average maximum is hardly 70c.

The report views the US protec

torate as unique because it has Hawaii and the US as an escape valve for population over-flow, enjoys marketing advantages with the US, possesses favourable attractions for certain US businesses, is served by a major US airline, and receives US financial aid.

“It is not our purpose merely to make the islanders richer, but rather to make them more productive, for the wealth of a people is not measured so much in terms of natural resources—as it is in the skills and abilities of its citizens,” the report declares.

A single-minded concentration on

tourism or industrialisation is not the quick cure for such ills as exist in American Samoa’s, nor should the territory blindly ape Western social and economic models, the report warns; this can be a dangerous pro cess that breeds social discontent as growth and change are seldom orderly.

Therefore, say the researchers, the suggested programme takes into ac count the Samoan cultural structure and psychological attitudes.

Future growth is seen as limited to the tourist market, assembly manufacturing and reduction of imports. The report predicts that these and social services will create 2,947 jobs by 1970, or 380 annually.

TV criticised

Institution since 1962 of 23 elementary schools and four high schools, free and compulsory educa tion, hot meals and expanded teacher training is commended. The tele vision method of teaching is criticised for “inadequate adjustment of learn ing tasks to individual characteristics of pupils”, and lack of vocational training.

The report specifies that only one in nine pupils is trained in specialisa tions such as art, commerce, business or agriculture. No machine shop, auto mechanics, welding, carpentry, plumbing or electrical wiring is taught.

“The bulk of high school graduates have drifted back into traditional village occupations as better informed citizens, but possibly not more pro ductive members of the labour force than if they had not had a secondary education,” says the report.

The status of the new Inter continental Hotel is censured: “The shortage of rooms has already begun to create ill-will among travellers and travel agents”. The report predicts that by 1975 five times as many hotel rooms as presently available will be needed.

Reforms in the areas of housing, judiciary, land tenure, banking, tourism and merchandising are called for and solutions suggested. Mortgage financing should be more flexible and construction skills upgraded. A channel of appeal ought to be in stalled in the judicial system. Land title registry and zoning of village lands should be mandatory.

It is proposed that the US Govern ment buy and operate the Bank of American Samoa and that a full-time director be employed to promote tourism.

The report states: “The merchants have, for the most part, retained operating methods characteristic of

small, isolated, primitive com munities. They are generally under financed and undisciplined and operate in a chaotic atmosphere that is re-inforced by the territory’s lack of a comprehensive commercial code and bankruptcy laws”.

Disinclination to compete is cited as the reason for this condition.

“Efforts to stimulate sales and improve one’s share of the market are minimal”, says the report. Stores are labelled as unattractive inside and out, and retailing practices as haphazard. • Tonga’s Captain David Fefita, of Minerva Reef fame, has left the kingdom on a two-year contract to skipper a 300-ton trawler Sumatra for Pen-Pak Ocean Products Ltd., of Cairns, Queensland, Sumatra will operate off the north and east coasts of Queensland. Captain Fefita entered Australia on a “student’s visa” to learn trawling methods.