Work Of Two Strangely Similar

Careers May Be Merged

IF the interests of W. R. Carpenter & Co. Ltd. and Morris Hedstrom Ltd. are merged in the manner proposed (see opposite), the event v/ill represent the merger, also, of the life-work of two outstanding men of the South Pacific—Sir Maynard Hedstrom, who died in Suva on June 2, 1951, at the age of 79, and Sir Walter Randolph Car penter, who died in Sydney on February 1, 1954, at the age of 76.

There was an extraordinary similarity in the careers of the two men.

Each man, by tireless work, shrewd trading and a remarkable know ledge of finance, created a huge commercial organisation; and each, before he died in harness, saw the assets of the Company he founded run into millions.

Maynard Hedstrom was born in Levuka, the son of a Swedish sea captain, and he became a trader before he was 21. He joined forces v/ith the late Mr. P. A. Morris, about 1892, to form the original Morris Hedstrom & Co.; and, by steady expansion over Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, and by purchase of or amal gamation with other similar con cerns, it grew steadily into the huge organisation it is to-day. Mr. Morris retired in 1921; but Sir Maynard Hedstrom was active in the direc tion of the Co. until only two or three years before his death. Mr.

H. E. Snell (with whom he was con nected by marriage) succeeded him as head of the Co. and his son, Mr.

J Maynard Hedstrom, became second in command. (See page 13 of PIM, June, 1951).

Walter Carpenter also was the son of a sea-captain, and was born in Australia; and he also was an active trader in tropical waters (Thursday Island) before he was out of his teens. In his youth he was associated with Burns Philp & Co., and with various Fiji trading enter prises, including Morris Hedstrom and Co.; but when Australia took over German New Guinea in 1914-13 he saw his big opportunity, and estab lished W. R. Carpenter & Co. in Sydney. It then was a modest con cern; but before he died in 1954, he also calculated his assets in terms of millions. His two sons were with him in WRC & Co. from the begin ning; and they to-day are the Chairman and Deputy Chairman

respectively of the parent Company. (See page 39 of PIM of February, 1954).

The late Sir Walter Carpenter.

The late Sir Maynard Hedstrom.