To Manufacture Paper Pulp

in Papua £3,000,000 Project for Kurukuru Grass

DOCUMENTS were lodged with the Registrar of Companies at Canberra on April 28 for the registration of British Australian Pulp and Paper Co. Ltd., with a nominal capital of £3,000,000 to erect pulp mills and manufacture paper pulp from the Kurukuru grasses of Papua and New Guinea, both for export overseas and for use in Australia, and to manufacture fine writings and printings in Australia.

This flotation is the outcome of the activities of a series of companies which have been interesting themselves in the two territories —especially Papua—for years past, but without achieving anything notable in the way of developmental enter prise or production. As far as we are aware the interests which have combined to register this £3,000,000 company are: Commonwealth Hemp Corporation Ltd., registered in Sydney, which at one time had a plan to grow sisal hemp in Papua; Fibres Limited, which was registered in Papua; and British Australian Fibre Co.

Ltd., which was registered in New Guinea.

The new company is registered in Can berra.

Particulars of these companies were pub lished in the March issue of the Pacific Islands Monthly.

Mr. P. R. Higgins (chairman of Standard Portland Cement Ltd.), who will be chair man of the new company, told the news papers that the first issue of £1,000,000 for

the erection and working of the pulping plant in Papua and for paper mills at Port Stephens, N.S.W., is entirely reserved for overseas interests which are behind the enterprise. There will be no issue of shares in Australia.

During the last two years developmental work has taken place by the parties con cerned with the use of Kurukuru grass produced in the Territories for the manu facture of paper pulp. It is claimed that it has now been proved that pulp suitable for the manufacture of fine writings and printings of the highest quality and simi lar to esparto papers can be manufactured from this grass.

Lands required have been secured from the Administration of Papua, and include 45,000 acres at Collingwood Bay, in the north-eastern division. These lands are sufficient, it is claimed, for the establish ment of at least three units of plant, pro ducing an output of 60,000 tons of pulp a year. Extensive areas in the Mandated Territory have been surveyed, and are in course of being secured for extension.

The company’s engineers are said to be at present engaged in preparing the final plans and specifications of plant, in con junction, it is added, with one of the oldest and most distinguished firms of paper engineers in Great Britain. The company’s output will be used largely for export to paper manufacturers in other countries.

The company says that it has, in addi tion, however, secured 690 acres of land at Port Stephens for the establishment of paper mills for the manufacture of fine writings and printings, and proposes as a section of its undertaking to manufacture this class of paper for the Australian market.

In view of the cheap cost of production of the pulp in Papua, those concerned with the incorporation of the company state that the Commonwealth Government has been

informed that no tariff protection, bounty or Governmental assistance will be sought for the establishment of the industry.

The company itself will be a holding company. Operations will be carried out by subsidiary companies.

Subscribers are: A. G. White, of Scone, grazier; A. H. Stevenson, Forbes, grazier; H. H, White, Mudgee, grazier; E. R.

White, Sydney, grazier; A. J. McLachlan, Sydney, solicitor; G. S. Holburn, Gordon, company director; G. L. Sly, Rose Bay. company director; W. J. Fullerton, Neutral Bay, company director; H. H. White, Den man, grazier; F. Bragg, Aberdeen, grazier: M. Scott, Narromine, grazier; J. M. Camp bell, Mendooran, grazier; A. Banks, Syd ney, law agent (Scotland); P. R. Higgins, Rose Bay, barrister; M. Spiegel, Sydney, company director; and Johnston Tait.

Croydon, paper engineer.

Mr. Erich Retzlaff, a pioneer German planter of Samoa, left Apia recently by the Nordic to spend his first holiday in the Fatherland for 23 years.

Mr. William Heinike, of Wau, New Guinea, married Miss Juanita Wilde, youngest daughter of C. B. L. Wilde, an old identity of the Territory, during April, Rev. V. H. Sherwin performed the ceremony.