SAMOAN DIFFICULTIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 June 1922, Page 4

SAMOAN DIFFICULTIES.

A TRADERS VIEW. LITTLE HOPE OF IMPROVEMENT. By Telegraph—Presa Assn.—Copyright. . . -Sydney, June 1. . . P lol Dinent Samoan trader, who is i isiting Sydney, interviewed, referred to the perilous condition of affairs in the mandated territory. Samoa’s economic condition was never so bad, principally because of plantation pests and low prices of products. He saw little hope of improvement because the labour necessary for working the plantations was so scarce and dear. Canker had such a grip on the cocoa plants that he feared no cocoa would be produced within three or four years, and the half a million sterling sunk in the industry waa irretrievably lost. Already several thousand acres of rubber plantations had been abandoned because it did notf pay to tap the trees. Regarding the administration, while he admitted, there was a good deal at dissatisfaction, he thought the New Zealand Government had done as well as any mandatory Power could have done under the circumstances. The Government had shown great care in the selection of the men sent to Samoa. He took exception to the statement by the Minister (Mr. E. P. Lee) that if the Government withdrew the prohibition ordinance the dissatisfaction in Samoa would cease. Not all the white inhabitants of Samoa were anti-prohibition-ists. Personally he thought proh’hition had been very effective, especially in rescuing young half-castes from drink. The neople of Samoa resented the imputation that prohibition was the chief cause of their couq Jaints.