Industry

Kikori’s Cutch Industry Gets A Start

From Our Own Correspondent

Fort Moresby, June 20.

THE New Guinea-Borneo Mangrove Company has started on the job of getting a cutch factory established in the Kikori district Papua. (Cutch is made from mangrove bark and is used for tanning and dying.) Its 380-ton steam vessel Narani arrived at Port Moresby the second week in June with the general manager, Mr. C. B.

Cook, and a full load of gear for the initial building operations. A new cutch manufacturing plant arrived a few days earlier from Britain on the Carron Park which brought the second consignment of Hawkesley prefabricated houses.

While the factory and staff quarters are being built, the European members of the mangrove bark team will live on the Narani.

The Company’s extensive mangrove lease in the Kikori area includes a small section of high land where the factory will be built, and later nearby swamp country will be reclaimed by using bark from which the cutch extract has been removed.

The Company has had many years of experience in cutch manufacture in Borneo.

The number of natives employed on wages in Papua will be comparatively small, being limited to factory staff. The major employment will be indirect, as the bark will be brought direct from natives who thus will be independent workers re ceiving payment on results.

With a desire for economic development already apparent the mangrove bark industry should fit in well.

Borneo’s record shows that the industry :an earn dollars, and the progress of the company will be watched with keen interest.