Airways Changes For N

N. Guinea The Guinea Airways Development is Surprising

IF and when air transportation is .restored in New Guinea, the situa tion will be very different from what it was at the end of 1941, when the Japs invaded.

Then, there were two major companies (Guinea Airways and Carpenter Air ways) and a couple of small operators, including Stephens Aviation Company.

W R. Carpenter & Co., operated the Sydney-Rabaul weekly airmail success fully, and without accident, from May, 1938, until January, 1942; and its sub sidiary, Mandated Airlines, Ltd., operated within the Territory.

Now, W. R. Carpenter & Co., Ltd., have sold the Sydney-Rabaul service to Qantas, Ltd.; and Guinea Airways are in a tur moil, following a proposal by the directors to merge with Australian National Air ways, and the rejection of that plan by

the shareholders.

Conditions in New Guinea have changed. During military operations, large new airfields and good highways have been built in many places; and a new motor road has been constructed from the mouth of the Markham up into the northern end of the Bulolo Valley, thus providing road transport for the heavy freight which, from 1928 until 1942, was the backbone of the business done by the aerial transport companies. Planes will be needed in New Guinea and Papua in the future, for passengers, mails and urgent freight; but the conditions gen erally will be very different.

In these circumstances, the wisdom of the directors of the old companies in protecting their capital and tying in with the big Australian companies, is appar ent, and needs no elaboration.

THE future of Guinea Airways now is quite obscure. This company, with an original capital of only £50,000, courageously pioneered the air transport business in New Guinea, and made the development of the Morobe field possible.

Its annual profits—they were in the neighbourhood of 50 per cent. for some years—were in accord with the richness of the field. Then came bitter competi tion, and profits fell, and the company found itself with surplus plant. Just when the position was becoming difficult, the company found an exceedingly cap able managing director in H. Morris Smith; and he quickly brought the sur plus plant to Australia, established the Adelaide-Darwin air service, and went after mainland business. He was just in time to become established, before war came. Through his great energy, drive, and success in dealing with Govern ments, he kept Guinea Airways in the profit-earning class, even after the New Guinea wipe-off in January, 1942.

Then Morris Smith, with the senior directors, arranged a merger between Guinea Airways and Australian National Airways, on terms which kept the GA capital intact, and guaranteed share holders a fixed 6 per cent. Guinea Air ways always had been lucky—and this seemed to represent the final and super lative stroke of luck. To the amazement of everyone who knows anything about the general situation, both in New Guinea and in Australia, the sharehold ers, on January 12, rejected the plan.

Messrs. A. J. Hancock (chairman), H.

Morris Smith (managing director), and C. V. T. Wells (former chairman) promptly resigned; Mr. Lapthorne, who opposed the merger, has not resigned;

and the intentions of Mr. L. V. Waterhouse, who is abroad, are not known.

All these are names well known in New Guinea and Papua before the invasion.

It is a dismal development in a con cern which, on the NG goldfields in the roaring thirties, was better known and more intimately connected with daily life than even the ubiquitous Burns Philp.

QANTAS, LTD., is really an Australian company, holding the shares of a series of operating companies. W.

R. Carpenter & Co., Ltd., now are the biggest shareholders in Qantas, and Burns, Philp & Co., Ltd., the second biggest—so Qantas planes are likely to be a familiar sight in the Pacific Territories of the future.

Mandated Airlines, Ltd. (Carpenter owned) has remained in existence, though all operations are suspended. It probably will receive substantial war damage com pensation. Its future, presumably, will depend on post-war developments in New Guinea.

Mrs. Alice Hooker, a former well-known resident of Fiji, recently celebrated her 93rd birthday in New Zealand.

Mr. Colin Belcher, of the RAF, formerly of Fiji, recently received his commission as Flying Officer.

The New Guinea Lutheran Mission Board has accepted candidates L. Altus and €. Eckermann with a view to train ing them for work in the New Guinea mission field.

Mrs. Roberta Iris Williams died in Suva, Fiji, on December 4. She was only 32 years of age and had been born and educated in Fiji. Her husband, Sgt, M. J.

Williams, is a member of the NZEF. Her mother, Mrs. G. R. Anderson, lives in Suva.