ABSTRACT
Forty years ago church land at Levaula, located near the capital of Apia, was established as a farm. All pastors were required to work at the farm for one year during their general training program. The church had originally intended the farm to provide funds for the support of church schools, since the Samoan government, and South Pacific governments as a whole, could afford to provide education for only a small percentage of the population. For most of the intervening years the farm was losing money and certainly was without profits. In 1973 it was incorporated by a decision of the Methodist Conference into the Samoa Methodist Land Development scheme (the SMLD). The board of directors was composed of local people, overseas agricultural or educational experts, and representatives of overseas funding groups or church mission boards. The SMLD now is run by a board whose members all are local Samoans.
