Pacific Commerce and Produce

w Subsidiary For

R's Fiji Mills

ITH a nominal capital of £F15,000,000, the biggest yet any Fiji private company, South fie Sugar Mills Ltd. was tered in Suva on December 19, a wholly-owned subsidiary of mial Sugar Refining Co. Ltd. is planned that the new com ’, when the various steps can be Factorily completed, will take CSR’s assets and activities in including its four sugar mills ancillary equipment, lareholders in South Pacific Sugar > are the chief inspector of the division of CSR in Sydney, Mr. j. Nicholls, and the chief man for CSR in Fiji, Mr. J. C. Potts, rectors are Messrs. Nicholls and ;, and the three managers of mills in Fiji, Messrs, J. M. sn (Lautoka), G. F. Adams •awai), and A. S. Hermes >asa). irmation of the new company s, in part, one of the recom- Jations of the Sugar Inquiry mission (under Sir Malcolm tram Eve) last year. It suggested the proposed subsidiary should ish its accounts in Fiji (which has offered to do) and also CSR might be prepared to int, say, three local directors, linent in business or in other ities in Fiji, and “at least one Id be a Fijian and one an Indo n”. CSR, instead of the latter estion, has appointed its three experienced European mill agers as directors in the first in :e—though there is provision for asing the number of directors to

pra And Oil

irket Is Static

IRING December the world copra market did not fall to any t extent—but it made no tacular rises either, and the price the month averaged out at about less than in November, le month’s highest point was on unber 19, when the c.i.f. price ion was £StgsB/l/2; the low— ess than £Stg.ss—was at the nning of the month. Average : —on which payments for

January will be calculated in such places as Papua and New Guinea— was £Stg.s6/5/-.

During December, the United States offered 7,000 tons of stock piled coconut oil and accepted bids for less than half of it (at prices near ruling market rates). The US, as part of its plan to help feed fat starved nations, purchased about 100,000 tons of soyabean and cotton seed oil for May-September shipment overseas; and the United Arab Re public bought heavily of cottonseed oil for immediate delivery.

All these moves are believed to have had some effect on the fat and oil market—but it would need a witch-doctor to work out just what.

The oil market, and with it the copra market, remains as uncertain as the international situation.

With populations in already over

populated countries exploding at

frightening rate, there should be a market for every pint of edible oil the world can produce, but the trick to that one is to produce at a price that the under-privileged can afford.

It is possible that if President Soekarno starts his war, the copra position may be affected. But this is by no means sure either, as Indo nesia has been an unknown copra quanitity in recent years and needs a great deal of what it can produce to feed its rapidly increasing millions.

The Papua-New Guinea Copra Marketing Board has announced that it has renewed, for 1962, all the contracts for copra that it held in 1961, so at least producers in the Territory can be assured that they can sell all their copra at world price.

Norfolk Is. Whaling Co.

Passes Dividend

Showing a consolidated net loss of £41,713 for the year ended October 31, 1961, Norfolk Island and Byron Bay Whaling Co. Ltd. will not pay a dividend.

The loss compared with profits of £64,842 the previous year and £63,063 in 1958-59.

Last year the company paid a 10 per cent, dividend, three months late, after it had received a takeover offer from Whale Industries Ltd.

The latest result is after higher pro visions for tax £8,382 (up £885) and depreciation £48,110 (up £3,297).

In December directors stated that both the Norfolk Island and Byron Bay stations were profitable for the year, but the over all result was adversely affected by difficulties encountered by the NZ sub sidiary.

Loloma (Fiji) Gold NL

Now Profitable Investment Co.

Profit rose from £98,672 to £116,670 for Loloma (Fiji) Gold Mines NL for the year ended June 30, 1961, said Mr. M. J. Cody (chairman) at the annual meeting in Melbourne recently. The company has disposed of its Fijian gold mining opera tions to Emperor Gold Mining Co. Ltd. and now is virtually an investment concern.

Dividend was held at last year’s in creased level of 2/6 a share and re quired £103,125.

Loloma’s investments at June 30 were worth £2,614,185 —obtained at a cost price of £1,545,330.

Mr. Cody told shareholders that Loloma directors during the year examined a number of mining prospects but none had been of sufficient interest to warrant support. The company has considerable holdings in several of the more promising oil exploration concerns in Australia.

Mine Development Costs Push

Down Emperor's Profit

Emperor Mines Ltd., operating com pany of Emperor Gold Mining Co. Ltd., Fiji, earned net profit of only £F8,799

for the year ended June 14, 1961, com pared with £F33,871 the previous year.

Operating profit rose from £F278,866 to £ F 319.963, including subsidy of £F148,275 paid by the Fiji Government.

However, mine development charges rose steeply from £P165,061 to £F274,169, mainly from deepening the Wallace Smith shaft and sinking a new eastern shaft from the surface to connect with the internal shaft. This trimmed the net figure, though depreciation was down from £ F 74.387 to £F36,732.

Ore reserves fell from 845,000 tons to 827.000 tons, averaging 8.6 dwt.

No dividend was again declared, at the annual meeting.

Since the end of the financial year, a record throughput of 19,358 tons in four weeks was achieved with the new plant, compared with the maximum of about 15.000 tons from the old plant.

Bali Plantations Ltd. Splits

Its Shares to 5/- Units

At meetings of Bali Plantations Ltd., New Guinea, in Rabaul on December 15 and 29, shareholders agreed to resolutions to sub-divide its 10/- shares into two 5/- stock units.

The company’s final results for the year to August 31, 1961, varied slightly from announced preliminary results.

Directors advised that the profit fell from £54,243 in 1960 to £46,784 in 1961.

Dividend was cut from 12 to eight per cent, (with a final distribution of three per cent. —previous year, final dividend was seven per cent., after an interim five per cent.).

Tax provision was reduced from £8,743 to £ 1,804, and depreciation charge in creased from £5,914 to £10,946. Develop ment of the company’s plantations cost £ 12,086, which was credited to develop ment reserve. Carry-forward was £22,904.

The downward trend of world market prices affected the year’s results—Bali’s income is derived entirely from copra and cocoa. The company’s copra output is around 1,860 tons per annum but is being increased to an eventual production target of 2,050 tons. Large scale plantings of cocoa trees were carried out last year.

Papuan Seismic Oil

Survey Fails

A seismic survey carried out south of Puri in Papua has shown no signs of oil, said the Minister for National Develop ment, Senator Spooner, in Canberra early in December.

There appeared to be no structure worth drilling south of Puri and Kereru anti clines.

Seimograph Services Ltd. made the survey for Australasian Petroleum Co. Pty.

Ltd.

AFC’s chairman, Mr. Bruce W. Graham, made only brief reference to Papua in his annual report to shareholders on November 21—“ every opportunity is being sought to re-establish activity in Permit No. 22, Papua”. His report was taken up mainly with details of the added £ 1,800,000 Federal Government’s subsidy for oil drilling generally (making £2.7 millions for 1961-62), and particulars of APC’s participation in the “Associated Group’s” programme in Queensland and NT.

TEAL's Balance Sheet

Is an Eye-Catcher

Balance sheet of TEAL, of New Zealand, issued at the end of 1961, would win any prize for the most attractively presented annual report of companies in the South Pacific.

With a coloured frontispiece of a TEAL jet-prop Electra airliner at Nadi, Fiji, and a profusion of photographs and easily understood graphs and illustrations, it is more like a travel booklet than a report to shareholders. It shows them how a profit of £ NZ155.458 (before adjusted tax of £NZ29,535) was earned for the year to March 31, 1961, and how the revenue of £NZ3,755,379 was spent.

Losses of £ NZ29.942 on the Coral Route service to Tahiti (including the period of changeover from Solent flying-boats to Electras) and of £NZSSO on the Norfolk Island service were reported. The Hibiscus service to Fiji carried just over 14 per cent, more traffic. The company’s shares in Fiji Airways Ltd. are shown at cost, £NZ54,240.

During the year TEAL produced a new travelogue film on French Polynesia, “Tahiti—The Beloved Isles”, its earlier, one, “Tiare Tahiti” having proved its worth as a travel lure.

Torres Strait Cultured Pearl

Industry Gets Under Way

A start has been made on Horne Island, Torres Strait, with the new industry to produce cultured pearls.

Aucher Pearling Pty. Ltd. (a sub sidiary of Associated Rural Industries Ltd., of Sydney, parent holding concern for a number of inter-locking companies) joined late last year with the Taiyo Fishery Co. Ltd., of Japan, on a 50-50 partnership basis, to establish the in dustry. Taiyo is one of the largest fishery companies in the world and has extensive interests in pearl culture.

Chairman of Associated Rural, Mr.

Peter Farley told shareholders at the recent annual meeting that the company shared Japanese confidence that this new industry would be successful. Income would begin in the second year of opera tions but full production would not be achieved for five years, he said.

P-NG and New Hebrides

Shell Exports From

Trochus, mother-of-pearl and green snail shell still are export earners for Papua-New Guinea, but, according to the Territory’s Bureau of Statistics, value of these exports has dropped seriously in the last five years.

In 1956, more than 19,320 cwt, worth £441,153, was exported. In the 1960 year ended June 30 last, the territory exported only 7,760 cwt, worth £109,579.

Meanwhile, over in the New Hebrides there has been a relaxation of the ban on green snail fishing. The NH Agri cultural Department reports receiving its second shipment of green snail shell, which came from Erromanga.

As with the recent first shipment, it conforms to the regulation size of six and three-quarter inches. It will go to France.

A third shipment of a ton of gr snail shell is expected to take pi shortly, to Australia, where it is fet ing around £A4SO per ton.