Enter Fiji

W. R. Carpenter & Co.

Enter Fiji Controlling Interest in Brown and Joske Ltd.

BY purchasing for about £BO,OOO a con trolling interest in Messrs. Brown & Joske, Ltd., general merchants and com mission agents, Messrs. W. R. Carpenter & Co., Ltd., have entered the trading field in Fiji.

Messrs. Brown and Joske, Ltd., was registered in 1922, and in 1929 it was con verted from a private concern into a public company and quoted on the stock ex change in Australia. The paid capital of the company prior to the recent develop ment was £69,440, in 20,000 preference and 49,440 ordinary shares of £1 each. The preference shares carry rights to a fixed cumulative preference dividend of 7 per cent., and priority as to capital. The busi ness has been personally directed for some years by Major Clive B. Joske, who is a well known member of a very well known Fiji pioneering family.

We understand that under the new con ditions Major Joske will remain in charge of the firm’s operations in Fiji. There will not be any notable changes—all that has happened is that Brown & Joske, Ltd., will carry out the Fijian section of the very extensive operations of Messrs. W. R. Car penter & Co., Ltd., in the South Seas.

Messrs. Carpenter & Co., Ltd., through recent notable developments, are now active traders, planters, and transport con tractors in New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, and Fiji, and now regularly operate a line of direct steamers between Europe and the South Sea Islands.

Captain Milne, who has recently been appointed Governor of American Samoa, arrived in Pago Pago by the February Monterey.