Pacific Commerce and Produce

:ome Sniping At

he Apinaipi Meeting

XHE annual meeting of Papuan Apinaipi Petroleum Co. Ltd., held in Sydney two days before .iristmas, provided again, as it has the past, some entertaining fire [irks that gave a lot of copy to s newspapers.

The man who set alight to the reworks was Mr. Rupert Richard 1, who continued his war against :2 present board; but there was bit of sniping from other dis oisfied shareholders.

Mr. Richardson first became pro inent in the company in 1951 when opposed the proposal that the mpany be wound up. Later he be me chairman of the company, and nd e r this leadership Papuan linaipi’s prospecting area was in eased. He also became research uiager.

Before the annual meeting at the d of 1956, considerable internal irest developed in the manage ;nt of the company, and the iird dismissed Mr. Richardson as search manager and sought his agnation as a director. He refused :resign and was voted out of office a ballot.

Towever, Mr. Richardson has ver given up and gone quietly, the contrary he has never missed -opportunity to attack the present section of the company and has 3n an enthusiastic writer of cular letters and similar mani i-toes. in the latest of the letters, cir iated just before the December seting, he claimed, amongst other mgs, that the well the company died last year (drilling and gen ii exploration cost £176,132 for the rttr) was in the spot least likely be successful, while other, more fourable, spots were ignored, tie also demanded an investigation shareholders into the affairs of 3 company.

At the meeting, other sharehold -4 attacked the payments to the lie directors. Mr. D. Rees said the ts should be halved; another that 3y should be cut out altogether.

Chairman of Directors, Mr. B, W. iTiham said that directors had despread problems—and a motion -s carried continuing payment of 3 £4,000 directors’ fees.

During the meeting, Mr. Richard i claimed that drilling had located in Papua in 1957, but that the ard had withheld this news from lareholders. The chairman denied It was stated in the annual report

that a party of oil experts will shortly go into the area held by Papuan Apinaipi within nine miles of where oil was struck by APC at Puri in November.

At the meeting, shareholders de cided to approve the proposal to increase the company’s capital by authorising an additional 20 million 5/- shares.

Another Dividend For

NG Goldfields Ltd.

HAVING made a profit of £20,000 from gold-mining, and £64,000 from trading, New Guinea Goldfields Ltd. shows an over-all profit of £84,654 for the year ended June 30 last.

It is paying a dividend of 3d. per stock unit, which calls for £55,904, and carrying forward just under £30,000. This will leave £124,718 in the P/L Appropriation Account, and about £168,000 in the Gold Mining Profits Reserve over £290,000 altogether. There was over £lOO,OOO in cash and bullion on hand when accounts closed.

It is significant that less and less of this 30-years-old Co.’s revenues come from gold-mining and more and more from trading.

The 3d. per unit (nominal value, 3/6) represents less than 7 per cent, p.a.—but as the units are valued at 2/4 in the stock markets, and as the Co. looks as if it will continue to earn between £60,000 and £lOO,OOO per annum, the units should be worth buying as an investment returning about 11 per cent. Mining prospects are poor, but trading and planting (the Co. has been planting a lot of coffee) prospects are good.

NGG Production

The production from New Guinea Gold fields Ltd. in the last two months of 1958 was as follows: Golden Ridges mill, November, 741 fine ozs gold and 719 ozs fine silver from 3,815 tons of ore treated: December, 859 ozs fine gold, 971 o/s fine silver, from 3,538 tons of ore vreated.

Golden Ridges Alluvials, November 10-, ozs gold bullion; December, 115 ozs bullion.

Golden Ridges Overburden, November, 47 ozs bullion; December, 76 ozs bullion.

Koranga Alluvials, November, 479 ozs bullion from 41,296 cubic yards; December, 993 ozs bullion from 39,148 cubic yards.

Tributes, November. 139 ozs bullion; December, 87 ozs bullion.

Timber, November, 162,809 super feet; December, 172,351 super feet.

ARC Flow Tests at Puri

Reports issued by the Australasian Petroleum Company Pty. Ltd. in December indicated that in continuous production, Puri No. 1 would produce only small quantities of oil. However flow tests were continuing.

The company is making extensive plans for a future drilling programme of the Puri structure and adjacent areas.

Drilling at Kuru No. 3 has been suspended owing to the extremely difficult conditions encountered and in order better to concentrate on the Puri area.

Enterprise Directors

Were Staggered

Directors of New Guinea Gold and Petroleum Development NL were “com pletely dumbfounded” when the New Guinea Administration informed them in June, 1958, that the usual annual extension of their permit covering their Oil Permit Area No. 21, on the Sepik, had been re fused. Since that date, much corres pondence had been exchanged between the directors and the Administration of P-NG and the Territories Minister. The Board has since applied for a new permit over the same area.

Since 1954 when the Permit was first granted, the company has carried out geological and geophysical surveys in the area under arduous conditions and four years of time and £175,000 of th.' com pany’s money has been expended on the project.

At the annual general meeting held in Sydney on December 15 it was stated by the chairman that geological and geonh vsical surveys in the permit area have proved the existence of a 300 square mile sedimentary basin, containing rock tynes which could form source or reservoir beds.

Although the gravity survery pattern has not yet revealed conclusive indications of structures suitable for accumulation of oil or gas, it does show interesting features well worth further examination, they add On the goldmining side, the chairman’s reports showed that a considerable amount of development work had been done during the 12 months under review. Development work from Enterprise No. 13 had yielded 576 ozs of gold bullion from 350 tons of development ore.

Alluvial workings above No. 1 Level had been commenced and 71 ozs of gold had been recovered therefrom. A further three heads of stamps had been added to the existing two more recently, and thre« to tour tons of ore can now be treated ner day.

Fiji's Brewery Looks

A Good Thing

Mr. R. F. G. Fogarty, director and general manager of Carlton and United Brewery Ltd., and Mr. G. C. Coulter, a director, attended the opening of Carlton Brewery (Fiji) Ltd in Suva in December.

The Fiji brewery has been established as a joint venture by Carlton United and W R. Carpenter & Co. Ltd. .I?™ 11 * ha * combination behind it. plus Fiji s thirst, and the open-go no-permit, beer drinking of all races that came into force in Fiji last year, the company should be a good money spinner once it has settled down to full production.

Plans for Emperor

And Loloma

At the annual general meeting of Loloma (Fiji) Gold Mines NL on December 12, shareholders were told that the market value of investments held by the company equalled 40/10 per Loloma share.

The Loloma profit for the year ending June 30, was £A93,914 and came almost entirely from investments. A dividend of 2/- per share, of which 1/7 was tax free, was declared. This absorbed £A82,500.

Mining operations for the year disclosed a loss of £7,430 —almost £A22.000 less than in the previous year. The affairs of Emperor and Loloma represent something of a financial paradox in that Emperor is still mining and doing very well but for reasons of policy does not frequently pay a dividend; while Loloma, which ceased underground mining in 1957, pays a hand some dividend from the £1 Vi million that the company has invested.

Loloma has mining interests in Aus tralia—mostly at the development stage; and in company with Emperor plans ex tensive exploration on jointly held ground in Fiji.

New Capital For

Guinea Brewery

Guinea Brewery, Lae, New Guinea, which began production in the middle of 1958, was in December seeking £20,000 more capital for an expansion programme.

In order to provide some reward for the confidence of the original investors, share holders have been asked to subscribe to resolution issuing a bonus of 5/- to make their 15/- shares £1 paid up value.

Norfolk Is. Whaling

Co. Prospects

Following the reaction of overseas markets to copra and other oils, the directors of Norfolk Islands and Byron Bay Whaling Co. see more favourable prospects for the company in the next year.

No dividend was paid last year as profits would have permitted only a small one and it was decided not to impair the company’s liquidity.

The whale oil market has improved re cently and increased production of whale oil and whale meat has been achieved by the company’s two establishments, at the same time that operating costs have been lowered.