Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/491

 NAURU ISLAND 439

Legislative Council unless he is either a natural born British subject or a Samoan, or was born in Samoa. Th<- oivil administration was inaugurated on May 1, 1920.

Savaii, with a length of 48 miles and a breadth of 25 milfs, has an area of about 660 square miles ; Upolu has an area of between 550 and 600 square miles. Both islands are mountainous, fertile, and well watered. Several adjacent islets, exceedingly fertile, were included in the German dependency. The port of Apia is in Upolu. The inhabitants of the islands are Polynesians, prof ssing Christianity (Protestants, Catholics, and Mormons). Population of Western Samoa (excluding soldiers), according to the census of 1917, 41,128, distributed as follows :— Whites, 1,668 (British, 660. Americans, 236, Swedes, 42, Germans, 530, others, 200); Natives, 37,223; coolie labourers, 2,237. The native }>opulation suffered heavily during the influenza epidemic of 1918, the number of deaths being about 7,500. There were (1917)2 Government schools with 784 pupils, and mission schools with over 8,000 pupils. There are 60 miles of good roads. The chief product is copra, and other products are cocoa, rubber, cardamoms, sugar. The revenue collected in Western Samoa for the year ended March 31, 1920, waa £95.022 (mainly customs, 58,792/. ; Court fees, &c, 11,8012. ; native taxes, 9,404/. ; wireless station, 7,208/. ; post office, 4,457/.) : the ordinary expenditure was 96,314/. There was an excess of assets over liabilities of 28,030/. on March 31, 1920. Imports (exclusive of supplies for the troops) for 1919, 291,368/. ; exports, 532,500/. In 1919, 77 vessels (34,273 tons) entered at the port of Apia and 81 vessels (35,940 tons) cleared. There is regular steam communication with New Zealand. Wireless stations have been erected at Apia, in Samoa, and Nauru (or Pleasant Island, one of the Marshall Islands), respectively. Two other stations were planned— it Rabaul in New Guinea, and on Yap, one of the Caroline Islands.

The currency before the British occupation was in marks, but English and American gold and silver coin were legal tender. Since the occupation, however, the German currency has been replaced l>\ New Zealand bank notes and specie. A branch of the Bank of New Zealand was opened at Apia in April, 1915.

The Hon. E. P. Lee, Minister of External Affairs for New Zealand, is in charge of Samoa and other late German Islands assigned to New Zealand.

Administrator.— Colonel R. W. Tate, C.B.E.

Books of Reference on Samoa.

Samoa Constitution Order, 1920.

Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Samoa. London, 1S99

Boyd (Mary S.), Our StoU n Summer. [Samoa, 4c] London, 1900.

Churchill (LI. P.), Samoa 'Uma. London, 1902.

Ehlers (O. E.), Samoa die Perle der Sudsee. Berlin, 1900.

Hette-Wartegg (E. von), Samoa, Bismarckarchipel nnd Neu Guinea. Leipzig, 19v2.

Kramer (A.), Die Samoa Inseln. Stuttgart, 1902.

Kurze (G.), Samoa, Das Land, die Leuteunddie Mission. Berlin, 1899.

Rtineekr (F.V Samoa. Berlin, 1901.

Stair (J. B.), Old Samoa. London, 1897.

Stevenson (JR. L.), A Footnote to History. Loudon, 1692. — Vailima Letters. London, 1895.

Turner (G.), Samoa • Hundred Tears Ago and Long Before. London, 1884.

Watson (R II.), History of Samoa, London. 1919.

NAURU ISLAND.

This is a small coral island just south of the Equator, and about 400 miles south of the nearest Marshall Islands. It was captured from the Germans, and under the Peace Treaty of 1919 the mandate for its administration was conferred on the British Empire. The mandate, as