Drink Beer And Beat Boredom

If you are a beer drinker in Papua-New Guinea there is no need to be bored. According to one local newspaper calculation, there are 12 different varieties of beer to be had (although not 12 different brands) including some bottled Japanese beer that was handed out as farewell presents by the Jap salvage teams that have quit Rabaul for Buin.

You can have beer in cans, bottles or draught. There is beer from Port Moresby and Lae, from Victoria, Queensland and NSW.

Some brands have it in several varieties—such as pilsener or lager.

One result of having all this beer laid on is that consumers are getting fussy. Drinkers who once used to just ask for beer, now ask for special kinds and brands. There are also dilettante types who experiment around and try them all out.

The great NG upsurge in beer interest is about 90 per cent, natural and 10 per cent, inspired by recent selling campaigns— newspaper advertising, pesters, free beer, and high pressure sales mansmp. The South Pacific Brewery has been running slogan com petitions to boost its sales.

How times have changed! Territorians with memories that go oacx only 12 years can remember the post-war beer drought when Australian wharfies refused to let beer be shipped to the Territory, ana when all the odd brands from Europe and the East found a ready sale—as flat as some of it was