80

6. An index to local earning opportunities in the Territory is afforded by the following list, compiled from salary-tax returns of 1946, showing the number, occupation, and status of persons earning more than £2OO per annum at that time :

7. Apia has served historically as the business centre of the Territory. There are four principal commercial firms which have their headquarters in Apia, and operate 168 small trading stations throughout the Territory. Two are overseas firms which also operate branches in other central Pacific islands, and together they control almost half the business of the Territory. The other two are local companies. In addition, there are numerous small trading firms, and also various businesses, in Apia such as transportation companies, a motion-picture company, and boardinghouses and restaurants, run by local Europeans of part-Samoan ancestry and by a few Chinese and Samoans. The returns for taxation purposes as at 31 March, 1946, showed the following as the distribution of business among firms large enough to be taxed : £ Branches of overseas companies .. .. 432,974 Locally registered companies .. .. .. 313,618 One-man businesses .. .. .. .. 174,187 £920,779 8. The external trade of the Territory has been subject to very marked fluctuations because of changes in world marketing and price conditions. At the one extreme have been the artificial boom periods of the two world wars and the immediate post-war years, when the demand for tropical products was intensive, and prices very high. Western Samoa is currently in its fifth year of such a boom period, and appears to-day to be at about the highest point of the cycle, with unquestionably the highest trade and income on record. A temporary but influential factor was the presence from 1942 to 1945 of United States troops, who brought extra money into the Territory and provided wage-earning jobs. At the other extreme have been a series of depression periods, notably a recession starting in 1920 after the first war, and

Occupation. Europeans. Local-born Europeans. Samoans. Civil servants Clerks Traders (village stations) Salesmen and women Ministers and missionaries Company managers Motor mechanics .. Carpenters .. .. Company directors .. Others 79 12 3 4 8 5 i 11 30 36 19 9 1 2 7 6 4 7 5 4 13 1 2 123 121 25