Whitten Bros., Ltd.

Port Moresby Store Sold

From Our Own Correspondent

Port Moresby, Jan. 19.

IT was with genuine regret that the older inhabitants of Port Moresby learned that the local branch of Whitten Brothers Limited has changed hands, and that the well-known name is to be with drawn from the business premises which have known it for so many years.

William Whitten came out on the “Governor Blackall’’ with Sir Peter Scratchley, first Administrator of Papua, in 1885. He soon left the Government service, attracted by trading prospects to the east, and sailed his own schooner among the islands and along the coast of the mainland round and beyond Samarai.

As trade and settlement progressed, William Whitten established a store at Samarai and was joined by his brother, R. F.

Whitten, the present manager of the business, about 1893.

The Whittens were intimately concerned with the development of the Yodda goldfield. For many years they undertook the greater part of the transport between the Yodda and the coast, recruited labourers for work on the field, and established branch stores first at Buna on the coast, and later on the Yodda itself. They were always the friends of the miners, and have helped and grubstaked many a man who was at the end of his tether; and the firm has more acts of generosity to its credit than any other business concern in the history of the Territory.

William Whitten died some 20 years ago, since when the whole of the firm’s interests, which are extensive, have been cared for by R. F. Whitten, a popular and trusted figure whom Port Moresby residdents will be sincerely sorry to lose.

Mr. Whitten will carry on his Samarai business, which he has not sold.