Motors In The South Seas

Remarkable Transformation In Last Twenty Years.

ON October 27 the s.s. “Pulpit Point,” one of the Vacuum Oil Company’s tankers, discharged the first bulk cargo into the company’s bulk installation at Suva —which, incidentally, is the first bulk petrol depot to be operated in the South Pacific Islands.

The installation has been built on newly reclaimed land at Walu Bay, and, in addition to warehouse buildings, pump house and pipe lines, will consist of three storage tanks, with a total capacity of 302,000 gallons. Plume motor spirit will be destributed by tank waggon in Suva and the surrounding district, and a drum-filling plant has been installed for supplying bulk petrol to outlying districts in Fiji, and to Samoa.

All the material for this installation has been supplied from England, Aus tralia. or local sources, and the con struction has been carried out entirely by local contractors and labour.

With the completion of this bulk in stallation the total expenditure on the South Pacific Island warehouses and plant of the Vacuum Oil Company Pty., Ltd., is estimated at more than £35,000.

Twenty years ago, the problem of providing handy supplies of motor spirit, kerosene and lubricating oils in such a vast territory as the Pacific Islands was a matter which required much enterprise and foresight. In those days, the market for these pro ducts was much smaller than it is to day, and communications were very difficult. To-day the company has branches or agencies at every import ant Island centre in the South Pacific,

The average tourist visitor to the South Seas is usually impressed by the large number of motor cars in use and, besides these, there is a big demand for petroleum products for launches, auxiliary vessels, tractors which are used on the sugar and other planta tions, and, of recent years, a very con siderable demand for aerial services.

Not only can the Islands boast of modern motoring conveniences, service stations, and kerbside pumps, but in Suva, Fiji, there are Punjabi traffic police on duty at three points in the town all day. Noumea also has its Gendarmes on traffic duty.

Of recent years many of the hard ships of Island life in the South Seas, for both the white man and the native, have been removed. A good example of this is shown in the numerous electric and kerosene refrigerator plants which may be found installed in almost every town and plantation. The former provide for the distribution of Austra lian and New Zealand frozen meat, and the latter enable the residents to keep their liquid refreshments at a suitable temperature.

Petroleum products, in one form or another, assist in every development in the Islands, and the Vacuum Oil Com pany claims to be the pioneer company in this vast region.

Leaving Sydney on December 23, the Orient Company’s vessel Orama will visit Noumea and return to Sydney on January 1, 1934.