SAMOA.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17470, 2 June 1922, Page 7

SAMOA.

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS BAD. THE PEOHEBITION QUESTION. (By Ccble—Press Association —Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) SYDNEY.. June 1. A prominent Samoan trader, who is visit Sydney, in the course of an interview, referred to the parlous condition of affairs in the mandated territory. Samoa's economic condition, he said, never had been so bad, principally because of plantation pests and the lowprices of products. He saw little hop© of improvement, because the labour necessary for working the plantations was bo scarce and dear. Canker had such a grip on the cocoa plants that he feared rto cocoa would bo produced within throe or four years, and the £500,000 which had been sunk in the industry was irretrievably lost. Already, several thousand acres of rubber plantations had been abandoned because it did not pay to tap the trees. While he admitted that there was a good deal of dissatisfaction with the Administration, he thought the New Zealand Government had done as well as any mandatory Power could liavo under the circumstances The Government had shown great care in the selection of the men sent to Samoa. Ho took exception to the statement by the New Zealand Minister of External Affairs (the Hon. E. P. Lee) that, if the Government withdrew the prohibition ordinance, the dissatisfaction in Samoa would cease. Not 1 all the white inhabitants of Samoa, he said, were nnti-prohibitionists. Personally, he thought prohibition had been very effective, especially in rescuing young half-castes from drink. The people of Samoa resented tho imputation that prohibition was the chief cause of their complaints.