VI

Against the advice of the Director of Agriculture, the Administrator had insisted that the Samoans were to be introduced to cotton-planting. Accordingly, seed was distributed free and a lot of propaganda put out to that end during 1924. In my own district I tried to impress upon the people that this was in the nature of an experiment, and to approach it with caution; for I feared that an almost inevitable disappointment would react unfavourably upon the established branches of our work. This crop is by no means a suitable one for Samoans; since it requires harvesting at a precise time—being liable to damage by rain—and that a people such as we were dealing with might find themselves unwilling or unable to do. The natives, however, generally were fairly ready to have a go at cotton-planting—being intrigued by any new thing—although I remember one Matai remarking with mock pathos that they soon would all be dead with all the work that the Government now required of them: a sally which was greeted with much appreciative laughter by the other chiefs and orators assembled. It was indeed a fact that orders were beginning to be issued to the Samoans now, thick and fast.

The total amount of cotton produced in Samoa in 1925 was negligible. It never rose to anything not trivial. No longer helped by a subsidy—which induced a few Europeans to take it up—the industry I presume has died a natural economic death. The working of the abandoned rubber-plantations in Upolu—on which the Administrator, again against competent advice, also was to insist—later involved the Government in severe loss. "On plantations devoted solely to rubber-production," said the New Zealand Public Service experts in their report of January 1929, "the financial results to date are distressing."

Another earlier idea of General Richardson's, I remember, page 189was that the District Inspectors should busy themselves by castrating the surplus native stallions and bulls. Certain implements were imported to this end. Like many other of his schemes, it was a flash in the pan, although I believe his son—a youth—actually did demonstrate the art among the natives in Upolu: in my opinion anything but a politic move. I agree that the work was an important one, but it called for the services of a Stock Inspector.