Rn S Philp Looks
pp. 25-26 · Read in the full issue
[?] s in Many [?] kets
To The Future
[E address to stockholders on May 26, at the annual general meeting of Burns Philp and ipany, by the chairman, Mr. es Burns, held more than its il interest this year as it gives ninating sidelights on the con , of big and diversified business he difficult post-war period. though this company shuns icity and counters its post-war ilems without comment of any , some of Mr. Burns’ comments ;his instance were straight to
point.
le report clears up a matter caused considerable specula in Australian financial circles ,pril—that is, the use to which £1,000,000 new capital is to be
and gives the intelligent
rver pause to reflect once again the utter stupidity of the nial Office in its handling of Pacific Islands affairs in the
•war period.
me extracts from Mr. Burns’s rt follow: fDITIONS during the past year may »e considered satisfactory, especially tail trade and also in our Island itions. chain stores, mostly in Queensland »ur country stores in NSW, showed sed turnover but all have had in ;d expenses. While sales increase higher expenses are covered. How- It is only by good management, care ipervision and constant expenditure jperties to keep them up to date and tive that we can hope to secure our of the . . money which is avail n the hands of the community for ing. Building and modernisation diture in the next two years is ited at £600,000. t of our subsidiary companies are well . . Some BP branches in ilia and NZ are doing well; some )t. Wholesale trade, with high costs )w margins of profit, is keenly con veys, Ltd are at present build new store in The Valley, Brisbane; will have two basements and car modation for shoppers . . . We are tamoured with New Zealand, because very high rate of company taxation plantations, of which we own about 1 manage six others, have done well to the high price of copra e are now in a position to go ahead uller development.
Our greatest problem since the las been in regard to the Solomon s. While we received compensation
for war damage in Papua and New Guinea, nothing was paid in the Solomons al though the British Government paid com pensation in Malaya and Burma. Our losses in the Solomons amounted to £250,000 and we have been unable to see our way clear to start there again.
Under Government “scorched earth” policy we were instructed to destroy most of our buildings and stores, and our plan tations were mostly totally destroyed, many being cleared for aerodromes. The native labour position is now difficult and export and other taxes make it un attractive to start again.
The export tax on copra must dis courage planters even though it is only 10 per cent. ... In Fanning and Wash ington Islands, where the tax is 25 per
cent., we can pay the tax while we make a profit, but if the price of copra should fall, this heavy export tax will be an unfair one.
Many years ago we bought Fanning and Washington from an English company that was practically insolvent. As soon as we did, all sorts of taxes were Introduced.
At present we can afford to pay import tax, export tax and company taxes . . but we are not going to risk any more money in these outlying islands as they are too far away.
We formerly traded in the Marshall, Gilbert and Ellice Islands and had a 100 years’ lease of the Phoenix Group, where we had plantations on Hull and Sydney Islands. Owing to over-population in the Ellice Islands, the British Government
pressed us to sell the improvements we had in the Phoenix Group, and to our surprise, during the continuity of our 100 years’ lease, the Americans were allowed to land on Canton Island and set up an air base. Notwithstanding our protest, we got nowhere and the British Government resumed our lease of the whole of the Islands and paid us very little for our improvements.
Therefore, we have the same lack of inclination to go back to the Islands under the Colonial Office as we had to go back to the Marshalls when the Ger mans forced us out of that trade.
As a matter of fact, Papua-New Guinea offers far more Inducement, and certainly appears to be a country with a future.
Burns Philp (New Guinea), Ltd., has
been doing very well, but we find that most of the profit we make is absorbed in expansion and expenses.
Burns Philp (South Sea), Ltd., has also done well . . . There also, we want new stores, new garages, workshops and staff houses. We have lately bought a small vessel to supplement the “Yanawai” in the Fiji Islands trade. This will release a smaller vessel from Fiji for employment by Burns Philp (New Hebrides), Ltd.
This latter company has not done so well and has made a smaller profit than usual Perhaps some day the English control will be transferred to Australia.
These islands are particularly fertile and in my opinion if cultivated with sufficient labour, might be found nearly as rich as Java.
Shipping is only a side line in our business Ships now cost a lot of money and are wasting assets. We are not making enough from the voyages accounts of our Islands vessels running under Australian conditions to provide replacements of ships as they grow old.
However, the position is not so bad in the Singapore trade and we will probably have to build a new ship to replace “Merkur”, which has been sold. A dupli cate of “Braeside” will cost between £IH and £IV2 million.
We are issuing 1,000,000 new shares at par and hope to continue to pay 10 per cent, on this increased capital which is required for buying and building new ships to replace old and worn out tonnage, for building new stores and housing for staff, and for development generally.
II Monsieur Yves Nicolas Casimir
Gayon has been officially appointed
Secretary General of French Oceania. He has been Acting Secretary-General since the transfer of M. Diffre to another position overseas some months ago.