Public works, $711,000.-The estimate will provide for the following projects:

Road construction, $1,520,200.-The existing unsealed, coral roads present a definite health hazard during dry seasons. To prepare for industrial development along with accelerated tourism, roads must be sealed. It is proposed to seal 15 miles of main shore roads from the airport site to Breakers Point. During subsequent years the remaining 20 miles will be sealed. To open up the north and south shore areas which are presently isolated and almost inaccessible. for agricultural and other development, heavy equipment consisting of approximately two bulldozers will be assigned to outlying areas which have agreed to provide all labor necessary, gratuitously, to construct badly needed access roads. Trained operators will be assigned and the Government will supervise operation. A cost schedule follows: Estimated contract price to lay 15 miles of aggregate and asphalt at $26,260 per mile will total $393,900; labor and materials to construct subbase course, base course and installation of approximately 45 culverts along with minor alinement, $413,000. Equipment needed to carry out the initial phase of the program will be purchased at an estimated cost of $671,300, including $67,500 to purchase a hot mix plant from the contractor, and will be available in subsequent years to complete the program; other items are two D-8 bulldozers, eight 5-ton dump trucks, one 2-yard dragline, one tandem 10-ton roller, two D-7 bulldozers, three D-12 Caterpillar graders, four compressors, three 2-ton pickups, two jeeps, one 15-ton compactor, one ripper, one 11-cubic-foot concrete mixer, one D-4 dozer, and miscellaneous tools. Salaries and transportation of two additional stateside employees, construction superintendent and heavy equipment supervisor, estimated at $20,000; housing for these employees estimated at $22,000.

It has been definitely determined that the present condition of the roads shortens the life span of automotive vehicles, causing unnecessary and costly repairs. If this territory is to attract industry and tourism, the roadways must be constructed to allow for normal traffic. American Samoa has approximately 40 miles of road of which less than 3 miles is tar surfaced and in very poor condition. This is the biggest sore point with the local population and is precluding industrial development. It would be cheaper to lay 15 miles of roadway while the hot-mix contractor is laying the airport runway during fiscal year 1962; and in addition, it would probably cut the unit cost of the airport runway.

Mr. KIRWAN. In the regular bill in 1962 we allowed the full budget request of $5,105,000 for Samoa, an increase of $2,457,000 over 1961. We have been led to believe that good progress was being made in recent years in improving conditions on the islands.

NEED FOR SUPPLEMENTAL ESTIMATE

Just what has given rise to this $5 million supplemental?

Mr. LEE. Mr. Kirwan, we are making good progress but we have a number of things that have occurred since this regular submission that we thought the Congress should know about and that we should do something about. In the first place, the arrangements that were made for the South Pacific Commission meeting were purely stopgap measures. We were planning on housing 200 foreign delegates in our schoolhouses. We were going to make dormitories out of these places and we still are unless some other plans that I will tell you about in a minute go through. One of the things that we became quite embarrassed about was our educational system.

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN SAMOA

We are a little embarrassed to have these foreign delegates see our educational system the way it is now. We have 45 elementary schools, with 3,600 students, and not 1 teacher in those schools is a certified teacher. They are Samoans that have had an eighth or ninth grade education in Samoa, which is the equivalent of about a fifth or sixth grade education in the States.

This is one of the reasons I think why very few Samoans speak English after 61 years of our rule and why we have to interpret for the Samoans at all of our official functions. Our intermediate school system, junior highs, we have five of them, the same type teachers, all without degrees, with the exception of one, the head of our junior high school system, who does have a degree.

In our senior high school, we are in little better shape on teachers. We have all certified teachers except one but in that school system we are turning down two-thirds of the students that graduate from junior high. We are turning them down because we do not have the teachers nor the space.

These children want to go to school. It is well known all through the islands they want to go to school. We have approximately 500 yearly of them between the ages of 15 and 20 that migrate to the States or to Hawaii, hoping that they can receive education there. They get there with the elementary and intermediate schooling that they have had. They completely fail. A few of them make it but the big majority fail. They simply cannot enter those schools with the kind of background they have. They are becoming a social problem, both in Hawaii and on the west coast and elsewhere in this country.

Our population has not grown in 14 years since I have visited the territory as Assistant Director of the Office of Territories. It is still relatively static although we have a very high birth rate; our rate of natural increase has doubled the national average. These people are moving up here, uneducated and creating problems. This is one of the things that made us want to beef up our school system, to be able to show these conferees that we had school seats for all of the children that wanted to go to high school, that we were putting increased teachers in the grade and the intermediate schools.

Mr. KIRWAN. Are all of the eligible children in school now?

Mr. LEE. No, sir. All of the elementary children are, but the others are not.

Mr. KIRWAN. What will this new request provide for?

Mr. LEE. This will provide seats for every child on the island. It will also beef up our elementary system but it will not cure this teaching problem that we have. We will still have some hundred-odd Samoan teachers that need further schooling.

HOUSING FOR SOUTH PACIFIC CONFERENCE

Mr. KIRWAN. You have in here $357,380 for additional construction for the South Pacific Conference. We allowed a supplemental of $465,000 for this purpose last spring. What is the status of these facilities and how will this new request be used?

Mr. LEE. The major part of this is $300,000 for a civic auditorium that is to be used for the school auditorium for future years. We had this in our long-range program. It was coming up next year or the year after. We were going to house this conference, that is, the actual meetings were going to take place in an old Marine messhall which is in a pretty dilapidated condition. We felt it would be better to move this date of construction up 1 year and house them in a decent auditorium that will be used for these multipurposes.

PUBLIC WORKS AND ROAD CONSTRUCTION

Mr. KIRWAN. $2,231,000 of the request is for various public works items, including road construction. Briefly explain the need for these funds.

Mr. LEE. We have only 35 miles of road on the island. This was a road that was built early back in the naval base when we took over. It has never been hard surfaced. It is creating real problems now in terms of coral dust in these villages. We are trying to build some kind of a tourist economy out there and attract tourists. We cannot do it without a decent road system.

Next year, again, they were going to come in with a request to pave part of this road.

It occurred to me it would be much more economical to pave this road at the same time we had the paving contractor in for the jet airstrip.

Mr. KIRWAN. This estimate covers about one-half of the road. Would it be cheaper in the long run to do it all now, or, perhaps, give our assurance that we expect to finance the balance in the next regular bill?

Mr. LEE. We think it would be much cheaper this year than the next year or thereafter because the contractor is going to bid on a unit basis. If he has a larger job to do he will bid lower to do the entire job.

Part of the cost of this thing is moving in a concrete plant and heavy equipment. We will lose the advantage of that after the next bid.

Mr. KIRWAN. Do you think the Government would actually save money if you were given more money to build this road?

Mr. LEE. I think you will save substantial money by doing it this year rather than next year.

Mr. KIRWAN. How long were you in the Indian service?

Mr. LEE. Eleven years.

Mr. KIRWAN. You were Assistant to the Commissioner?

Mr. LEE. Yes.

Mr. KIRWAN. The job took you on about every reservation in the United States and Alaska?

Mr. LEE. I have been on most of them. I missed one or two of them.

Mr. KIRWAN. We know what hardship we have put the Indians to. How do the Samoans compare with the American Indian as far as hardship is concerned?

ECONOMY OF SAMOA

Mr. LEE. There is quite a bit of difference in this regard. Many of the natives have not been, let's put it this way, they have not been clothed or fed or given welfare payments down through the years. They have been pretty self-sufficient. They are pretty anxious to make a go of it on their own. They are a proud people. You see, these people, they have their heads straight in the air. They sing. They are cheerful. They are not beaten down as some of our Indian people are. The spirit of these people is wonderful. I would like to make this clear. I have talked to the chiefs. They want these roads. They have been crying for roads. They want electricity into their villages so they can preserve their food in the tropics. They have a feast or famine. If they get a good catch of fish they eat it within 2 or 3 hours. They have to; it spoils. They do not have electricity. I have said to these chiefs, "I am not willing to go to the Congress and ask for anything that you people can provide yourselves." That is, "If you people will provide hand labor to clear the road rights-of-way, to do these various jobs, construct schools, we will provide the materials and the technical knowhow." These people are anxious to do it and since I have been there we started two new roads back into the bush country, back into the jungle. We have one chief who has his wife out with a crew of 60. He has 80. He has also started in another village to open up these agricultural areas so we can increase the agricultural production.

ROAD EQUIPMENT

Mr. KIRWAN. Explain the request of $671,000 for road equipment. Mr. LEE. The equipment we have in there is actually equipment we will use to build the subsurface on the road and on the airport and these other facilities.

Mr. KIRWAN. You would always have the equipment if you bought it?

Mr. LEE. We would have the equipment. We would then divert it to these market roads and roads to other villages. Most of the villages, at least all on one side of the island are inaccessible now except by boat. We would like to open up these areas. We are now importing $1 million worth of food a year. We think we can spur agricultural production with this equipment.

HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE PROGRAM

Mr. KIRWAN. Briefly explain the need for the $616,950 for operating expenses of the health, education, and welfare program.

Mr. LEE. Well, sir, on the education, again, a good share of this goes into supplying some supervisors that can help these native teachers in better teaching in the elementary schools, sort of beef up that program. At the present time we have one or two supervisors who are doing all of the five islands. This would provide additional supervisors that would work with these Samoan teachers, trying to upgrade their teaching. We have got a substantial amount in here for health. We need a new iron lung, we need resuscitators, an ambulance. We need the type of thing that normally any hospital would have. We have had wornout Navy equipment down there that is on its last legs. Some of it is inoperative. We have to have replacements. A good share of this money goes for that.

Mr. KIRWAN. When you get started on this construction program, with the natives helping you, do you think it would be advisable to get some professional engineering assistance from the Army Engineers in Hawaii?

Mr. LEE. We would like to borrow help anywhere we can get it in the Government. We thought of Army Engineers, or the Seabees at one stage of the game. I wondered if we could get a Seabee battalion. to come down and help us at one time.

Mr. KIRWAN. You should not have much trouble getting a few of them to come in there and help out.

Mr. LEE. I would explore getting help from them. I hope it is not too expensive. If we can get it at a reasonable cost out of this budget we would certainly use it.

Mr. KIRWAN. Do you have any questions?

Mr. THOMAS. No questions.

Mr. KIRWAN. Mr. Rooney?

Mr. ROONEY. I have no questions, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. KIRWAN. Mr. Jensen?

Mr. JENSEN. Mr. Lee, I was very interested in your statement and your answers to Mr. Kirwan. We have known you for a long while. We know you as a dedicated public servant.

You have four other islands besides the big island.

Mr. LEE. That is right.

AREA OF ISLAND GROUP

Mr. JENSEN. How many square miles are there?

Mr. LEE. There are only 76 square miles in all of the islands. It is a very small group.

BASIC INDUSTRY

Mr. JENSEN. Agriculture in a limited form is your basic industry I presume.

Mr. LEE. It is the mainstay of the people. It is the subsistence type of industry that maintains the island. We do have one fish cannery there that is giving employment to about 350 to 400 people. It is the only other industry.

Mr. JENSEN. Other than that you have no industry to speak of!