A—4

Revenue derived from duties on; importations for year ended 31st March, 1947: £ b. d. Medicinal liquor (import duty, 17£ per cent, or 25 per cent., plus surcharge of 15 per cent, and 25 per cent, on British and other respectively; port and Customs service tax, 5 per cent.) . . . . . . . . 1,943 9 1 Industrial liquor (import duty, 17| per cent, or 25 per cent., plus surcharge of 15 per cent, or 25 per cent.; port and Customs service tax, 5 per cent.) . . . . Nil. (Note. —No duty was payable under this head, as the rectified spirits of wine referred to above were all imported by the Administration.) Sacramental liquor (free of import duty; port and Customs service tax, 5 per cent.) . . . . . . 4 14 8 These duties are the ordinary ad valorem rates applying to all goods not subject to specific rates of duty; there is no authorization for higher specific rates of duty on liquor, for the rate of duty is immaterial, having regard to the fact that all liquor is sold by and for the Administration at prices approximating current retail prices in New Zealand. The control of opium and other dangerous drugs in the Territory is vested in the Administrator by the Samoa Dangerous Drugs Order 1930, which was enacted in further pursuance of the terms of the Convention and Protocol of the Second Opium Conference held at Geneva in February, 1925. The Order follows the provisions of the New Zealand Dangerous Drugs Act, 1927. It is believed there is no traffic in dangerous drugs in Western Samoa, other than occasional attempts to import, small parcels of smoking-opium for sale to Chinese. Such attempts are made very infrequently, and the subject does not constitute a problem in the Territory. XVI. MEDICAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH Staff The staff consists of the Chief Medical Officer and 2 other European medical officers, 22 Native medical practitioners, 7 Native dental officers, 1 European dispenser, 1 qualified bacteriologist of part-Samoan descent, and a nursing staff consisting of a Matron, an Assistant Matron, 9 European Sisters, 97 Native nurses and trainees, and 66 others. Including office personnel, the health staff comprises 16 Europeans, 4 part-Europeans, and 192 Samoans. In addition, there are 8 trainees at the Central Medical School, Suva, taking the Native medical practitioners' course. Of the 22 Native medical practitioners, 3 are employed at the Apia Hospital, 3 in the Apia district, 13* at out-stations., 1 on relieving duties, 1 at Niue on loan, and 1 in the Tokelau Islands. During the greater part of the year the Chief Medical Officer has undertaken routine hospital duties in order to allow one of the Medical Officers to devote attention to public-health matters and, to the training of Samoan assistants in sanitary and anti-mosquito measures. Visits Following a visit to the Territory in September, Dr. J. C. R. Buchanan, Inspector-General, South Pacific Health Service, made a comprehensive report regarding the expansion of the medical service and the future development of the public-health policy generally. Dr. C. A. Taylor, Director, Division of Tuberculosis of the New Zealand Health Department, investigated the incidence of tuberculosis in Samoa and came to the conclusion that the disease was not so prevalent as had previously

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