Hemp Corporation Gentlemen

in Trouble

THERE was interest for Papua and New Guinea in the arrest in Sydney on August 23 of five well-known men connected with the Commonwealth Hemp Corporation and other allied companies, namely, David Hampton, Michael Sin clair (or Spiegel), George S. Holburn, Edward R. White and P. R. Higgins. They have been charged with conspiring "with a certain William James Fullerton, to obtain money by fraudulent means. Some of them had been charged a week earlier with not making income tax returns and heavily fined. In these proceedings the companies mentioned were the British- Australian Fibre Company, Ltd., the British-Australian Pulp and Paper Co., Ltd., the Commonwealth Hemp Corpora tion, Ltd., and Issuing Houses of Australia.

This is the group which extended its activities to Papua and New Guinea a few years ago—first, with a view to growing hemp in Papua, and, later, with the idea of utilising the kunai grass of New Guinea for paoer-making.

The “P.1.M.”, in the plainest language possible in the circumstances, urged people in the Territories to carefully in vestigate the records of these companies before having anything to do with them; and, as a result, certain of the gentlemen named above threatened the “P.1.M.” and its printers with action for libel.

Mr. R. Anderson, late quartermaster of the Union Co.’s Islands vessel “Matua”, has taken up shore duties as wharfinger at Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, re placing Mr. W. Bryan who has retired after 25 years’ service in the Group.