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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 82

IV.—Trade and Industry

IV.—Trade and Industry.

There are 26 stores licensed in Apia, but as many of these are Chinese cookshops and retail stores, I only mention the principal, in the order of importance—once more explaining that the name of McArthur and Co. does not appear in the page 30 list because their business is carried on in another part of the island :—
German Plantagen and Handels Gesellschaft (two stores)
German Ruge Co.
English Dean
American Wightman Bros.
American Moors Bros,
American Parker
American Greysmühl, Crawford and Co.
German Krause
English C. Woods (two stores)
French E. St. Foy
The 26 stores are divided among the following nationalities :—German, 6; Chinese, 6; English, 5; American, 5; French, 2; Swedish, 2. To give an idea of the busy industrial condition of Apia, I may mention that last year licences were taken out by the following :—Carpenters, 23; clerks, 19; cooks, 6; overseers, 4; blacksmiths, 4; bakers, 3; surveyors, 2; and one each, engineer, butcher, photographer, lawyer (Mr. Hetherington), sailmaker, boatman, auctioneer (Mr. Alvord, an American), barber, tailor, and cooper. There are five hotels in Apia (for the most part mere drinking shanties, though at the International fair lodgings can be obtained), and the licence fees are 10 dollars per month if the sales are under 250 dollars per month; and 12 dollars when the sales exceed that sum. There were formerly six hotels, but the licence of one had been summarily cancelled for a contravention. I could not obtain an estimate of the capital invested by different nationalities, but the debts registered at Apia are as under :—
British Debts £25,859
German Debts 58,000
American Debts (estimated) 8,000

Although German interests are undoubtedly paramount at Apia, I was pleased to find that while English coinage is driven out of circulation, they have not been able to stop the conquering march of the English language. Our robust Anglo-Saxon speech is the "Open Sesame" to every understanding.—that of the Samoan, Chinese, French and German alike. The German firms keep their books in English, and the many clerks whom they employ are of no use until they have pretty well mastered our language. This supremacy of tongue, arising from the so-called English defect of speaking no language but our own, is sure to produce great and beneficial results in Samoa and elsewhere in the Pacific; for natives respect a white man in proportion to the tenacity with which he adheres to his mother-tongue, and lose their respect for him, as a rule, when he makes himself one of themselves by adopting their language.