High Cost of Working
p. 133 · Read in the full issue
Walpole
PIM recently reported that there were plans afoot to recom mence shipment of guano from Walpole Island, part of the New Caledonia administrative territory, 150 miles east of Noumea.
A New Caledonia business man who was in Sydney in May, said that the remaining supplies on the Island would not seem to warrant the erection of any expensive equipment to facilitate the loading of ships. However, as Mr. Angelo Biga, a well-established mining man of Koumac, was said to be behind the project, it could be assumed that the difficulties of shipping from an open anchorage had been fully considered.
There are between 5,000 and 6,000 tons of guano dug and ready for shipment on Walpole—a legacy of past operations. About 10,000 tons per year were exported from 1923 to close-down in 1929, nearly all of it going to New Zealand. Consumers there now use Seychelles guano from the Indian Ocean. t Number of Credit Unions in Fiji at end of March was 87; member ship was 10,901; assets £31,859.