Fully Employed

MH Potential Not Fully Employed

ALTHOUGH Morris Hedstrom Ltd., the big company operat ing in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, etc., made a profit last year of £107,834, maintained the usual dividends, and carried forward no less than £345,642 in P L Account, the Directors are not happy. The chairman (Mr. R.

Crompton, of Suva) said that “the real wealth in terms of volume of output over the areas served by the Co. is not increasing, despite fast increasing population”; and “po litical conditions are increasingly difficult, and criticism on the part of islands populations, of the re wards being drawn by overseas in vestors is increasing.”

The Co. has an issued capital of £739,613; and it also employs £747,257 of reserves. With sundry creditors, items in suspense, and balance in P/L, its total funds in use are nearly £2l million. But too much of this is not employed at all. There is, for example, over £120,000 in cash, and well over £200,000 in stocks and shares. A big re-build ing programme is under way, but this is not likely to perceptibly add to the earning power of the capital.

The fact is that there are not enough opportunities in these fer tile mid-South Pacific territories to give employment to the big reserves of enterprise and money available in this and similar companies. It seems an absurd situation, in a world growing every year more hun gry. Where does the fault lie? The co.’s Chairman suggests “political conditions.”

This Co. has a fine Pensions Fund.

Its assets now total £281,420; and it received last year some £13,000 from Interest in investments, £8,777 from members, and £17,555 from the Co. The Fund has been 25 years in existence. There are 345 members but so far the annual Pensions paid out total only some £3,000.

Mr. H. J. Hulek, Secretary of the Fiji Education Department, is now in the United Kingdom on long vacation leave.