In addition to palm-oil and copra, Samoa yields the usual tropical products of cocoa, coffee, tobacco and rubber, as well as vegetable ivory. From Samoa the export of copra in 1912 amounted to £200,000, and owing to the increased utility found for copra and its steady rise in price during recent years, further planting has energetically proceeded, though somewhat interfered with by the appearance of the rhinoceros beetle. The pest seems to have been introduced in baskets of earth in which rubber stumps were packed, and soon obtained a firm hold upon the plantations, though the Samoan Government has made strenuous efforts to extirpate it. "The larvae usually proceeding from eggs deposited in decayed cocoa-nut stumps are found in large quantities six to twelve inches beneath the soil, in masses of rubbish, where they gradually transform themselves into beetles. On coming to the surface they fly from tree to tree and feed on the leaves, especially on the centre leaf of the cocoa-nut palm--the heart of the tree--which, being eaten up, the tree dies. The eggs, it is said, are always deposited by the beetles above the ground, and turn into caterpillars, which, boring their way through loose soil and rubbish, then become larvae."[H] Rubber is of comparatively recent introduction into Samoan production, and only amounted to £646 in 1911. Tapping really only commenced in that year; and though later figures are not available all reports as regards the quality of Samoan rubber are reassuring, and the prospects of the industry are regarded as excellent. Cocoa, however, has been grown for many years, and in 1911 was exported to the value of £38,508, despite the ravages of the "cacao canker," which attacks the older trees, the young ones under eight or nine years old being seldom if ever affected. Amongst other industries is the collection of phosphates, the value of which, exported from the Pacific Islands in 1912, amounted to £250,000. The following official report was made last year on the phosphate industry in the islands of Nauru and Angaur: "The Pacific Phosphate Company in 1912 shipped from the islands 138,000 tons (as against 90,000 tons in the previous year). The Company suffered from a gradually growing lack of labourers, which was in the end overcome by the importation of coolies. At the end of 1912, 59 Europeans, 90 Chinese, and 576 natives of the Protectorate were employed in the phosphate mines on the Island of Nauru. The works were improved and extended in many directions. The Deutsche Suedsee Phosphat Aktiengesellschaft exported from Angaur 54,000 tons of phosphate, as against 45,000 tons in the previous year. The total annual production has consequently increased by 57,000 tons. While on Nauru Island labour was scarce, on Angaur several plants had to be finished before work could proceed to the full extent. Labour conditions were here satisfactory."