SAMOAN TROUBLES.
DUE TO FALL IN PRICES. LOSSES ON CROWN LANDS. By Telegraph.—Press A ss »- —Copyright. Sydney, Sept. 9. The Herald’s special commissioner, in a concluding article, says: “Samoa’s troubles are mostly due to economic factors, for which the Government is in no way blameable. Scarcity and the cost of labor, combined with the low prices of tropical products. make it problematical whether any plantation schemes could be worked at a profit.”
The writer discusses the Chinese labor question and New Zealand’s policy in connection therewith, and says that, instead of the early policy of encouraging their repatriation, recently, owing to the acute labor shortage, the Chinese have been solicited to stay, and the Government has made arrangements to import 1000 new Chinese from Hong Kong. The writer adds that serious injury will be done to agricultural interests in Samoa if Chinese laborers are not available, because it is difficult to replace them.
Referring to Crown lands, he says the administration has taken over thousands of acres of cultivated and uncultivated lands, which belonged to deported Germans, believing they would produce large profits and thereby reduce the cost of administration to a minimum. This has proved a delusion. All the Crown estates are likely to show losses because there have been too many white officials employed and consequently too high a salary list, preventing a profit. Even if the markets become normal again, probably the most sensible course would be to lease these estates.
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Taranaki Daily News, 10 September 1921, Page 4
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244SAMOAN TROUBLES. Taranaki Daily News, 10 September 1921, Page 4
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