SAMOAN PRICES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 783, 2 October 1929, Page 7

SAMOAN PRICES

CAUSES FOR DISPARITY INTERESTING COMPARISON (THE SUA' S Parliamentary Reporter j PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Tugs. Although in the actual prices paid there is a difference of roughly £5 a ton in the maximum price paid Samoans in Western Samoa and to those in American Samoa, these prices are not comparable without considerable adjustment, because of such differentiating factors as taxation, market fluctuations and cost of collection. That information is contained in a return on the subject tabled in the House today, at the request of Mr. W. J. Jordan (Manukau). The return shows that the prices paid in Western Samoa are as follow: Upolu, Apia, £lO Is lOd a ton: elsewhere, £i> 10s 2d a ton: Savaii. east and south-east coast. £7 16s lOd a ton: elsewhere, £t» 14s 6d a ton. The prices paid Samoans in American Samoa are 92 dollars 51 cents a ton. As an example of the fluctuations, the return states that an export-tax of 30s a ton and lighterage of Gs a ton are payable in Western Samoa, but not in American Samoa, where taxation is on a different basis, and where ships can tie up at the wharf. Copra in American Samoa is all controlled for annually, and since the letting ot’ a contract in the beginning of this year there has been a very heavy fall, at one stage some £ 4 a ton. in the market price which is reflected in the Western Samoa price, but not in that of American Samoa. It is understood that an average of some £2 5s a ton in transport costs is payable by the producer in American Samoa, but not in Western Samoa. The much greater area and number of producers in Western Samoa add materially to the overhead cost in that territory. The Administration’s system of advances, which was designed to enable any native in Western Samoa who is dissatisfied with prices ruling in that territory to consign first-grade copra through the reparation estates organisation, and thus receive the actual price obtainable in the world market, is still available, but little effective use has been made of it by the Samoans. The amount shipped last year under this scheme was 21S tons out of a total production of native copra of 12,109 tons, and no copra under that scheme has been received since July last.