A—4

Provision is made for the allowance of appeals from the High Court to the Supreme "Court of New Zealand. Very little use has ever been made of this right, and none at all for the past fifteen years. Of more practical importance is a right of rehearing in the High Court of cases tried by Fa'amasino Samoa Itumalo or Commissioners. A case tried by a Fa'amasino can be reheard by a Commissioner and again by the Chief Judge. Where a case was originally tried by a Commissioner, there can be a rehearing before the Chief Judge. The only other legally constituted judicial body in the Territory besides the High Court is the Native Land and Titles Court, which has jursidiction in respect of disputes over Native land and succession to Samoan titles. The Court is the successor to a rather similar body established by the German Administration in Samoa. Its present constitution and powers were conferred on it by the Native Land and Titles Protection Ordinance, 1934, and an amending Ordinance of 1937. The Chief Judge is President of the Court, and he is assisted by two or three European assessors and two or three Samoan Judges. The assessors are men of standing in the community who possess a good knowledge of Samoan custom. The Secretary of Samoan Affairs is an assessor ex officio and he is free to participate in the work of the Court whenever he considers the circumstances of the case require it. The Samoan Judges are those who act also as Associate Judges in the High Court. In the Land and Titles Court, however, they possess more adequate legal standing. They are formally appointed by the High Commissioner under powers conferred on him by Ordinance. Both the High Court in its higher jurisdiction —when presided over by the Chief Judge or by a Commissioner —and the Land and Titles Court fulfil an important role in the process of government. During 1948-49 the High Court sat under the Chief Judge or a Commissioner on 162 days to hear criminal cases and on 39 days to hear civil actions. The Land and Titles Court sat on 84 days. Detailed statistics of cases heard and of judgments given are contained in Appendix Y (a). Although Fa'amasino may not hear a large number of cases in their districts, they do in fact perform a large amount of useful work informally and are often called upon to settle disputes extra-j udicially. F. ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT Structure of the Economy Western Samoa is almost entirely an agricultural country. The main forms of production are of foodstuffs for local consumption and of agricultural crops for export. Fishing is carried on extensively by the Samoans to satisfy their own .domestic needs, but commercial fishing is negligible. The processing of export crops is confined almost entirely to the cutting and drying of copra and the fermentation and drying of cocoa beans. The one successful enterprise so far built up for the secondary processing of Samoa raw materials on a relatively large scale is that of the New Zealand Reparation Estates' desiccated-coconut factory. There are two small sawmills —one at Asau, in Savai'i, operated by the New Zealand Reparation Estates ; the other in Apia, privately owned. At present their output is absorbed almost entirely by the local market. In the agriculture of the Samoan village communities the subsistence element is still of fundamental importance. A large part of the land under cultivation by Samoans, and a large part of their working-time, is absorbed in the cultivation of taro, ta'amu, bananas, and other food crops. Pigs and poultry are raised for local consumption ; they form an essential article of diet at feasts and when important visitors are being entertained. This subsistence production has been combined for a long time past with production for the export market. Coconuts, which contribute in a multitude of ways to the domestic needs of the people, are even more important as the source of copra, the most important export product of the Territory. In recent years Samoan production is estimated to have accounted for about 85 per cent, of the total copra output of

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