S. R. Maxwell Ltd.

Old Established Tahiti Co Is In Liquidation

From Our Own Correspondent.

PAPEETE, January 15.

THE old established mercantile firm of S. R. Maxwell and Company, Ltd., which has carried on business for many years in French Oceania, has announced officially that by virtue of a decision arrived at by a general meeting of share holders held in Auckland on November 22 last, it is now in a state of voluntary liquidation. Mr. Edward Anderson, a prominent official of the company, resi dent in New Zealand, is the liquidator, and he will be represented locally by Mr.

T. E. Bunkley, who has been the Tahiti branch manager for many years.

It is always depressing to see a well known and reputable firm go out of business, especially one like Maxwell and Co., which has filled such an important place in the life of the community. This firm formerly operated schooners and maintained trading stations throughout the various archipelagoes of French Oceania. For several years past, how ever, these activities have become more and more restricted. Outside stations have been closed up one after another and the schooners sold off, so that prac tically nothing now remains except the Papeete buildings and the stocks of mer chandise contained therein.

Maxwell and Co. also held the local agency of the Union Steam Ship Co. until quite recently, when the business here was taken over by one of the U.S.S.

Co.'s own managers, Mr. Coster.

The islands of Flint, Caroline, and Vos tock are still held by Maxwell and Co. on a lease from the British Government, and it will be interesting to see what is to become of these properties, in which, of course, there can be very little profit at the present time. Flint Island is one of several small islands lying northwards of the Society Islands; it is three miles long by half a mile wide, and is well wooded. Caroline (or Thornton) Island is a low-lying atoll about 400 miles east of Penrhyn, in the Northern Cook Group.

Vostock Island, a low sandy islet, was discovered by Bellingshausen in 1820; it is situated near Flint Island.