Samoa and its Story/7
POPULATION AND TRADE
The total native population of Samoa (exclusive of Tutuila) in 1912 was 35,000, distributed thus:—Upolu, Manono, and Apolima, 20,662; Savaii, 12,816. There were in 1913 544 white inhabitants, 329 Germans, and 132 British, and also 1354 Chinese, and 1003 non-native inhabitants of mixed race, chiefly Kanaka labour from the Western Pacific Islands. There are two Government schools, established by the Germans, with 784 pupils, and there are old-established English mission schools with over 8000 pupils.
British capital invested in companies operating in Samoa is officially returned at £185,000, German companies have a capital of £341,500, The exports from Apia in 1912 consisted of copra valued at £203,494, cacao beans £41,983, coffee £5, tobacco £52, kava £1040, rubber £5538, and coconuts £110. These commodities were sent to the following countries:—Australasia £102,223, Germany £126,790, United States £12,028, other countries £11,183. The import business is largely in British hands. The details of values for 1912 are:—United Kingdom £7695, Australasia £151,891. Germany £42,214, United States £22,146, other countries £12,374, Beer, wines, tobacco, gunpowder, £14,943. Total £251,263.
In 1912 65 vessels of 74,430 tons (exclusive of coasters) entered at the port of Apia, and of these 53, with a tonnage of 72,442 were British. Sixty-two vessels, of 73,999 tons, cleared, fifty-three, with a tonnage of 72,442, being British.
British Samoa, with its thousand square miles of territory, is a much more valuable asset to New Zealand than the Cook Group, productive as those islands are. It is also a little nearer to New Zealand than Rarotonga, although somewhat more to the northward. From the English and German plantations come not only copra, but many other products, such as cacao, vanilla, indigo, coffee, nutmegs, and tobacco. Cacao bean growing, a comparatively new industry, is becoming a profitable business, and the cultivation of rubber holds promise of great returns. There are large areas of waste land—large for a Pacific islands group—awaiting clearing and development, and there is scope here for British and colonial enterprise and capital when peace comes round again.