Now 77 Years Old

The Enterprise of Wm. Kopsen.

IT is an interesting coincidence that, as PIM celebrates its 25th birthday, the well-known Aus tralian firm of ship chandlers and hardware merchants, Messrs. W.

Kopsen and Co. Pty. Ltd., celebrate their 77th year of business in Aus tralia and the Pacific.

Mr. William Kopsen arrived from Sweden and commenced business in Suva in 1878. He opened a ship chandlery establishment, and for some years carried on this organ isation in both Suva and Levuka.

In company with a friend, he eventually purchased a sailing vessel called Falls of Garry and shipped a cargo of copra to England. Ship and cargo were sold in the estuary of London at Gravesend, and Mr.

Kopsen then returned to Suva, sold out his interests in Fiji and opened a similar business in Sydney.

For many years this business carried on, importing ship chandlery from England and Sweden, until he died in 1930. His son, Mr. Kyle Kopsen, has managed the business ever since; and to-day it has grown to a substantial organisation, with

large warehouse and office buildings in Kent Street, During the last 70 years, Kopsens have supplied very large quantities of goods to traders throughout the Pacific—in fact, the growth of the

Company has been on a para! with the growth of the business the Pacific Islands. Scarcely Islands ship leaves Sydney that d( not carry some Kopsen cargo fn Sydney for friends in the Tei

es. Regular visits now are made representatives of the Company, wherever marine equipment is fired the Kopsen name is held esteem. imes have changed since Mr. [iam Kopsen founded the busi ;in Sydney 77 years ago. In ;e days the store would be filled i heavy canvas, tarred rope and >tan bars. To-day most of those iguing things have disappeared, im being the only article of that s which appears still in a modern e. To-day, high-powered diesel nes, chrome-plated boat fittings modern life-saving appliances 3 taken their places, opsen's association with PIM continuous since the first of issue.