Woodford's underfunded administration struggled to maintain law and order on the remote colony. In the 1890s/early 1900s there were numerous cases of European settlers being killed by islanders, with the British often retaliating via collective punishment of guilty villages, often by indiscriminately shelling coastal areas from gunboats. The British attempted to encourage plantation settlements, however by 1902 there were only about 80 European settlers in the islands. Attempts at economic development met with mixed results, though Levers Pacific Plantations Ltd., a subsidiary of Lever Brothers, managed to establish a profitable copra plantation industry which employed many islanders. Small scale mining and logging industries were also developed. However the colony remained something of backwater, with education, medical and other social services being the preserve of the missionaries. Violence also continued, most notably with the murder of colonial administrator William R. Bell by Basiana of the Kwaio people on Malaita in 1927, as Bell attempted to enforce an unpopular head tax. Several Kwaio were killed in a retaliatory raid, and Basiana and his accomplices executed.