Plan To Brew At Wau

Mew Guinea Breweries Ltd.,

* the registration of which in Sydney was reported recently, is a company formed to acquire from Mr. J. Cassell his right, title and interest in a sole license for the territory from a German firm which is marketing a special process of beer manufacture (and supplying the machinery and a technician), together with an area of 40 acres at Wau, and an agreement with the Australian Govern ment that no duty will be charged on locally-produced beer for two years.

The prospectus contains an estimate of sales to the extent of 50,000 gallons per annum at 3/6 per gallon, at which price it is considered that it will be easy to defeat the competition of Australian beers which cost a minimum of 7/6 per gallon in New Guinea, inclusive of import duty. Ten thousand of the 50,000 £1 shares are said to have been sold in New Guinea.

The enterprise is definitely speculative.

Anyone who knows New Guinea knows how fussy the New Guinea resident is about his beer—his likes and dislikes are definite, and nothing will shift him from one brew to another, once his taste is formed. The estimate that the people of Morobe goldfield will consume 50,000 gallons per annum of the new brew seems excessive—in any event, so much depends upon the quality of the brew in relation to the public taste. If Wau beer is to be sold elsewhere in the Territory it will be subject to the same disability as the Australian beers —namely, high transport cost.