A.—s

40

UPOLU AND SAVAII. Acres. (1.) Total Native lands .. .. .. .. .. .. 580,500 (2.) Total D.H. and P.G. .. .. .. .. .. 76,000 (3.) Total other German lands .. .. .. .. .. 33,500 (4.) Total British and others (British mainly) .. .. .. 29,000 725,000 Classified as follows :— (1.) First-class lands for settlement, 60,000 acres; second-class lands for settlement, 70 000 acres; waste or inferior lands, 156 000 acres ; available for Native requirements, 300,000 acres : total, 586,000 acres. (2.) Under coconut, &c, for D.H. and P.G., 9,000 acres ; virgin bush land, 20,000 acres ; second-class land, 30,000 acres ; waster or inferior, 17,000 acres : total, 76,000 acres. (3.) Under coconuts, rubber, &c., 9,000 acres; first-class lands for settlement (fifty to sixty Germans are interested), 8,000 acres ; second-class lands for settlement, 10,000 acres ; waste or inferior lands, 6,500 acres ; total, 33,500 acres. (4.) Held by mission societies, 4,500 acres; under cultivation (British and others), 2,500 acres; first-class available for settlement, 11,000 acres; held as plantations partially developed (some twenty Britishers including one or two other nationals, being interested), 6,000 acres ; waste lands, 5,000 acres : total, 29,000 acres. The total amount of land available for settlement is given as —First-class, 92,500 acres; second-class, 116,500 acres. We show this acreage for your information, but make no comments. The total Native lands are 586,500 acres. We estimate the area under cultivation to be 70,000 acres, and the yearly output 7,000 tons. The population of Samoa is made up as follows: Men, 7,723; women, 9,623; children, 13,290: total, 30,636. Allowing two thirds as working population, this would be 20,424 —equal to, say, one unit to 342 acres ; which, when taken into consideration with the fact that foodstuffs have to be planted and maintained, houses to be built and repaired, canoes to be built, roads to be formed and maintained, beetle-searching carried out, and the thousand-and-one other things necessary to the upkeep of a community and its plantations should be more than sufficient to show you that as a source of labour-supply for European plantations they are not to be considered. We would also lay great stress upon the fact that with the present price of copra a Native and his wife can (if they are in want of money), by cutting out 400 lb. of dry copra—an easy task —earn in one day more than the planters could afford to pay them in a month. The next area for our consideration is that held by foreigners, and is given as 138,500 acres, made up as follows : — 20,500 acres under cultivation, 6,000 acres partly developed, 39,000 acres first-class reserve, 40,000 acres second-class reserve, 4,500 acres held by mission societies, 28,000 acres waste or inferior lands. The amount of the capital concerned must be considerable. The Government, through the D.H. and P.G., is directly interested in 76,000 acres. It is in order to safeguard this area and capital, in which you, as representatives of the New Zealand Government, have a large interest, that we, as representing the planters of Samoa—who, you must remember, are settled in the country, and in many cases married into the country, and therefore have the interests and welfare of the country at heart—make our earnest appeal to you to strain every effort to procure for us from some source the necessary labour we require in order to protect our interests and the interests of the colony.

Port of Apia, Samoa. — Return of Shipping for the Calendar Year 1919.

These figures are given in order to remind you of the significance and the necessity and importance of labour to our merchants. The Union Steamship Company bring round each trip about ninety indentured Fijian labourers to assist in discharging their vessel; they also have been assisting the Administration of late by placing some of this labour in the lighters. The wages paid these men are £3 per month and food. Our own merchants are entirely concerned with the local labour-supply, their requirements being in the vicinity of one hundred men.

Comparative Return of Principal Exports, the Produce of the Territory.

Steam. Sail. Total. Sail. Num- Net ber. Tonnage. Tons Cargo. I I " ' [ Nam- : Net Tons Num- Net Tons her. Tonnage. Cargo. ber. Tonnage. | OargO, Sritish 'oreign INW/! iRD. 33 19,273 23 2,830 56 22,103 5,046 2,047 : 33 19,273 | 5,04 21 12,170 1,516 j 44 15,000 3,56 21 12,170 1,516 j 77 34,273 J 8,60 19,273 15,000 5,046 3,563 Hi ).'{ >9 Grand total.. 7,093 1,516 77 34,273 8,609 Iritish 'oreign 33 24 19,279 2,903 OUT' 1,187 1,276 ABI). I 24 13,758 [33 15,886 | 48 19,279 16,661 1,187 17,162 Grand total.. 57 22,182 2,463 24 13,758 15,886 81 35,940 18,349

1910. 1011. 1012. 1013. 1914. Article. Tons. Value. Tons. Value. Tons. Value. No llgures. Tons. Value. £ 498 27,753 9,010 i 148,564 632 10,088 2 £ 38,508 179,145 646 723 11,017 24 £ 41,982 203,496 5,538 £ 1,033 62,477 8,573 146,627 41 10,446 Joooa . !opra lubber Article. ioir>. Tons. Value. Tons. 1! 916. 1017. 1918. 1010. Value. Tons. Value. Tons. Value. Value. ?. Tons. Value. Cocoa Copra Rubber .. 879 11,974 67 £ 59,322 187,429 13,907 929 7,544 62 £ £ 63,970 1,207 69,549 143,245 ; 8,992 230,971 20,228 j 70 14,097 £ 795 I 54,169 9,370 I 426,576 17 i 2,850 I £ 820 ! 81,110 16,359 ' 449,917 Besides which small quantities of papaii ., pineapples, and kava have been exported.