Abstract:
During the last eighty years the spotlight of world attention has frequently been focussed on the Samoan Archipelago. But at no stage in its history has the group attracted more notice than it did in the years following 1926 when the policy applied by Major-General Sir George Richardson, the Administrator at that time, had most startling effects.
The Samoan Group For a more detailed survey of the group see Handbook of Western Samoa, pp. 17-40: Buxton P.A, Researches in Polynesia and Melanesia. pp. 14-50. is strategically situated in the Pacific about eight hundred miles south of the equator. Most of the islands are volcanic and for their size exceptionally elevated. They are mainly covered by a luxuriant growth of tropical forest with many varieties of trees, creepers, tree ferns and parasites. The fertile soil yields breadfruit, coconut, taro and bananas in abundance, but the ground is so stony that it is almost unploughable thus greatly limiting cultivation. In addition recent volcanic action has rendered large areas unproductive, especially on Savaii, the largest island. The topography and dense vegetation seriously impede internal communication; travel by land is arduous and canoe and motor launch provide the chief means of cummunication. Population which is limited to the four islands of Upolu, Savaii, Apolima and Manono is confined mainly to the coast in each case.
