Islands Exporter

He Says

It’S A Paradise

Retires To Tahiti

THERE is no place in the world as beautiful, as quiet or as peaceful as Tahiti. There are no trains, trams or newspapers, and only a few telephones.

This is, at all events, the opinion of Mr. Alec. Haworth. From early March it will become his home. He retired from business in Sydney on January 31, and left on the Caledonien on February 11.

Mr. Haworth was one of the founders and directors of the Islands trading firm of Robert Gillespie Pty. Ltd., of Sydney.

When asked why he had chosen Tahiti for his retirement, Mr.

Haworth said: “A lot of my friends in Sydney have asked me what Tahiti is like, and my invariable reply is that the Tahitians have re tained what we are rapidly losing— the art of gracious living.”

Mr. Haworth said he had been all over the Continent, Scandanavia and America, and had never seen a place as beautiful as Tahiti.

He was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, 64 years ago. For many years his work lay in the fine arts, but in 1935, when there were signs

Over 20 executives, representatives of the main Sydney firms supplying the bulk of goods shipped to the Islands, joined forces to give Mr. Alec. Haworth a farewell dinner at Usher's Hotel on February 1. Warm tributes to Mr.

Haworth were paid by Mr. Len Kirkby and Mr. Harry Young; and Mr. Cliff Nathan (who convened the gathering) presented him with a tooled leather travelling case.

Photos show: TOP (left to right).—J. Byrne

(Ballande (Aust.) Pty.), D. McLean (Balm

Paints), G. Baillee (Nile Distributors), A. Bre haut (Commonwealth Insurance), L. Kirkby

(Hamilton Glass Co.), Alec. A. Haworth, C Nathan (Fox Bros.) partly obscgred, S. Reddrop (Commercial Bank), R. Tew (Eveready Co.), W Selig (Gillespie's), F. A. Tindale (CSR Co.), F Geary (Philips Co.).

BOTTOM: A. Ottawa (Wm. Angliss), S. C Hughes (Pacific Islands Monthly), H. Green (Gillespie's), L. K. Robinson (Sydney Milling) D. Anderson (Edw. Dunlop), R. Gillespie (Gillespie's), H. Young (Harry J. Young), R.

Scribner (BP & Co.), H. R. Chapman (Hoff nung's), R. Appleton (Agnew & Co.), W. Dalziel (Commonwealth Portland Cement).

of an economic slackening in this field, he decided to make a clean break, and go to Australia.

He linked up with Mr. W. M.

Reid, who founded Exporters Pty., Ltd. When this organisation went into liquidation he teamed up with Mr. Robert Gillespie to found the

firm which still bears Mr. Gillespie’s name. This was in 1941.

“When I first went into the ex port business I didn’t know the first thing about exports,” he said. “I thought you just put something into boxes and shipped it out.”

Mr. Haworth has seen Robert Gillespie’s grow from a small com pany employing a shipping clerk and a typist into a thriving concern with a staff of 27. He saw the formation of an associate company, Robert Gillespie (New Guinea) Ltd., with headquarters at Lae. This ■company has branches at Rabaul, Port Moresby and Madang.

In the last 16 years, Mr.

Haworth has visited all the Pacific Islands where his firm trades, with the exception of New Guinea.

I “New Guinea has always been Mr. Gillespie’s baby,” he said. On one of his Islands tours in 1944 he was stranded in Fiji. There was no shipping available to bring bim back to Australia, so he had to scramble aboard an Air Force Catalina. This long flight was an experience he will never forget.

Mr. Haworth said that he con sidered the secret of successful ex porting, particularly as far as the Islands were concerned, was to “put yourself in the position of the man at the other end.”

“If he wants something, get it for him as fast as possible,” he said. “Take care of the little orders, even if it is only a packet of pins, •and the big orders will come.”

Mr. Haworth will make trips to other islands from time to time, and may make an odd trip back to Australia.

Mr. Haworth has asked PIM to express to his friends in the various Islands groups his sincere apprecia tion of their many kindnesses to him over the years.

“It is impossible for me to sit down and write a letter to every person I know in the Islands,” he said. t The Fi.ii Director of Audit, Mr.

C. A. G. Coleridge, has been trans ferred to Aden.

Mr. Alec Haworth.