Pacific Commerce and Produce

f Philp

ig and Selling

s an interesting month for ■ns Philp & Co. Ltd., the th Pacific’s oldest Big Firm. in July, the company \ its General Manager, Mr.

Mitchell, announcid that it quired all the shares in a

surance company—Equitable

! and General Insurance ly. Late in the same month, ipany was a party to one of s biggest real-estate deals, the Imperial Arcade and Arcadia were sold to a te of five Sydney business ir £750,000; and some Pitt »roperty, south of the Arcade, her party for an additional . the acquisition of Equitable ij BP now covers all fields of ce, its two general insurance £s being Queensland Insur to. Ltd. and Bankers and i Insurance Co. Ltd. able Probate —whose name ; changed to Equitable Life eneral Insurance Co.—has lerating for 36 years, but the npany plans further develop- Said Mr. Mitchell on the of the acquisition; “Build a life business is essentially term proposition, and profits be obtained for many years stablishment.” mperial Arcade Deal lings have turned out in the s since BP acquired the Im- Arcade-Hotel Arcadia pro ;his investment has not been [table as expected. The exact laid for this real estate (it sn owned by Joynton Smith) t, has never been disclosed, i guess is that it was some aetween £500,000 and £600,000. in since the war has drained large proportion of the value i 1941 £, so by accepting ) for the two lots of property P, at best, has done no more reak even. iompany evidently feels, how hat this money can now be d more profitably elsewhere, cnperial Arcade, which runs steeply from Pitt Street h to Castlereagh Street, con ibout 40 small specialty shops similar number of offices. At Je BP purchased it, the Com ntended to use it as a means reak-through into Sydney and >outh Wales of its successful

Queensland chain-stores, Penneys.

The war intervened, and a few

years ago Penneys was bought by

G. J. Coles and Co., a rival chain store company which was already represented in most of the other States.

It is suggested that the new owners of the Arcade property will sell the shops, etc., piecemeal over a lengthy period and in this way they should do very well. Although this is one of the biggest real-estate deals ever negotiated in Sydney, in view of the property s strategic posi tion and in terms of 1959’s very in flated money, the purchasers could do well out of the deal.

Big Drive For

Oil, Minerals

An Australian government drive on a National scale to find oil and minerals in Australia and her Territories, was well under way in late July. Individual efforts extend from Mt. Lyall, in Tasmania, to Papua, and in some departments reaches beyond Australia to Fiji and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands where the search for phosphate deposits goes on. With only 30 or 40 years life left to the rich Ocean Is. and Nauru phosphate deposits, finding other sources of supply for this vital agri cultural commodity is becoming urgent.

In the general drive, vulcanological ob servatories such as the one in Rabaul; geophysical observatories, such as those in Darwin and Port Moresby; and resident geological staff such as those at Darwin, Alice Springs. Port Moresby, Wau and Rabaul. have all been brought into the effort.

The Commonwealth Government an nounced some time ago that it would provide another £3 million plus generous tax concessions to assist the search for oil.

BCD Profit Up

Bulolo Gold Dredging profit for the year ending May 30, 1959, was the equivalent, of £A300.000; this is an increase of about £A114.000 over the same period last year and was partly attributable to the fact that earnings from gold dredging (only No. 5 dredge now remains in production) and from sluicing operations, were higher than last year.

Commonwealth - New Guinea Timbers yielded a dividend of 5 per cent., which was paid last November; and the opera tions of BCD’s own timber mill at Lae (it provides cores for the C-NGT plywood as well as other sawn timber) were satis factory.

Personal

Mr. James David Oswald Burns, son of chairman of directors, Mr. James Burfts, has been appointed a director of Burns Philp and Co., Ltd., to fill a vacancy on the board.

Mr. J. Barsby, mining engineer, pro ceeded to Wau, New Guinea, on July 24. to join the gold-mining staff of Enterprise of New Guinea Gold and Petroleum De velopment NL. (Over)

Papuan Oil Search

Extends to Sea

Camelot Nominees Pty., Ltd., who in June were granted off-shore oil prospect iiig rights in the Gulf of Papua, will not be wasting any time in beginning work.

Camelot’s permit is for an initial 12 months’ period.

A unit of the Murphy Corporation of Arkansas, USA, which is behind Camelot, w iH undertake a geophysical survey of the sea bed in the Gulf. The permit area is of over 9,000 square miles, and this will be the first time in the history of Papuan oil search that underwater prospecting has been attempted. Murphy Corporation has had much experience of oil prospecting in the Gulf of Mexico.

Plantation Co. Issue

Was Rushed

The lists of Plantations Holdings, Ltd (256,942 shares at 5/-) closed on July 21.

The issue was heavily over-subscribed several days before that but was kept open to give people in P-NG opportunity to apply.

Whaling Co. Makes

Plans Ahead

Norfolk Island and Byron Bay Whaling Company reported in July that the com pany has made forward contracts for the sale of this season’s oil, meal and meat.

The company now operates three whal ing stations—at Norfolk Island (where no difficulty is expected in filling this years’ quota of 150 whales); Byron Bay. Northern NSW. where the quota of 150 is already filled: and Barrier Island, New Zealand, which has no specific quota this year, and where 40 whales had been taken up to July.

Shares and Name

Change for Travel Co.

As a result of the collapse of White’s Travel Service, Ltd., in New Zealand, the Fiji subsidiary has undergone some changes.

The Fiji shares previously held by the parent company have been acquired by Northern Hotels, Ltd., and the company has been renamed Fiji Tours and Travel Service, Ltd. The manager is Mr R Parkes, as before. Mr. Neil Ahlfeld is manager at Lautoka and Mrs. Olga Hut chinson is representative at Nadi Airport.

Sir Hugh Ragg is chairman of the board, and other members are Mr. David Ragg of Sydney, Mr. J. N. Falvey, Mr Shiridhar Maharaj, and Mr. Parkes.

Timor Plans New Well

If all went according to plan, Timor Oil, Ltd.’s, new well, 12 miles south-west of their first well at Alibata, Portuguese Timor, should have been spudded in by now. Last report from the area was to the effect that the work was going satis factorily and the Brewster rig, which had been dismantled, was then In process of being transported to the new site.

New Guinea Goldfields

Progress

The monthly progress report for July shows: Golden Ridges Mill, 988 fine oz of gold from 3,895 tons of ore treated - 1 318 oz of silver. Golden Ridges Alluvials:’ 25 oz bullion, Koranga Alluvials: 400 oz of bullion. Tributes: 74 oz of bullion. In the same period 165,140 super feet of timber were produced.