Asking N.Z. For Loan

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30983, 12 February 1966, Page 3

Asking N.Z. For Loan

(New Zealand Press Association)

APIA, February 11.

The hurricane relief committee of the Western Samoan Government decided this morning to seek a £200,000 loan overseas.

The money will be used to set up an agricultural restoration fund controlled by the Bank of Western Samoa. The fund will serve to rehabilitate plantations and restore production lost through the hurricane.

Bananas can be back to production in a short time but cocoa and copra will take years to reach full production,

says a New Zealand Press Association correspondent. Field technical advisers will also be sought from the lending country.

They will provide expert supervision and guidance to village planters. The latest assessment of food needs over the next 12 months, based on the daily diet of 2100 calories for 90,000 people, is 24,517 tons over the normal requirement. The Government has ; accepted an offer from the Governor of Western Samoa (Mr H. R. Lee) to provide aircraft to make an aerial survey of the damage throughout Upolu and Savaii. The damage assessment from all of Western Samoa’s 260 villages is still incomplete. The request for the loan will be made initially to the New Zealand Government to be passed on as it sees fit.