EETTER TIMES IN SAMOA.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 August 1922, Page 3

EETTER TIMES IN SAMOA.

GOOD RECOVERY OF INDUSTRY. NEW ZEALAND’S ADMINISTRATION. FAVORED BY THE PEOPLE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. ‘‘A marked improvement in affairs in Samoa, both commercially and politically, has taken place in the last twelve months,” said the Secretary’ for External Affairs (Mr. Gray), in an interview after a five weeks’ official visit to the mandated territory. From a commercial standpoint, Mr. Gray expressed himself as quite satisfied that Samoa had come through the worst of the bad times and at present was in a better position than either Fiji or Tonga. One of the main contributing causes was the fact that throughout the last 18 months’ of acute depression, the Samoan Administration, with the approval of the New Zealand Government, bad kept the Crown estates going, and had also carried out its previously-arranged policy of public works. Another gratifying feature was that the Samoan native population was showing a gratifying rate of increase and recovering some of the terrible losses incurred during the influenza epidemic. The political situation had also changed completely. A year ago the Faipules, or Samoan Advisory Council, had presented a petition to the Minister for External Affairs asking that the administration be transferred to Britain, while in its latest session, in April and June this year, the same native Parliament had on at least two occasions passed sincere and formal motions expressive of confidence in the administration and loyalty to New Zealand.

Replying to criticism which had recently appeared in a Sydney paper, and which was cabled to New Zealand, that the administration could not secure as good results from the expropriated estates as the former German owners, Mr. Gray said these area? were now producing a very high grade o copra and cocoa, which easily held its owi on«the London market. On the Mulafanu: plantation, which was the largest cocoanut plantation in the Pacific, and com prised 4000 acres of bearing trees, the output in the past year had been at least 300 tons greater than in any pre-war year since 1901, and this crop had been produced with 50 less laborers than were employed by the Germans. Very much the same could be said of the other plantations. The opinion had also been expressed by e leading planter and a resident of Samoa, in a recent interview to the Sydney press, that the cocoa industry was doomed to extinction within the next few years owing to the ravages of canker. From searching inquiries during his visit, Mr. Gray stated this opinion was completely at variance with that of the experts in Samoa. The amount of canker that existed was quite negligible, p.nd was confined exclusively to very old trees.