Pacific Commerce and Produce

Gillespie’s Creditors Over From Receiver

, business of Robert Gillespie ty. Ltd., Sydney, one of the Islands merchant firms, which into the hands of a Receiver on ary 12, is now being carried on an Official Manager and a littee of three of the principal irs. s step, made possible under the 4SW Companies Act which be effective on July 1, was agreed July 16 by the first meeting of Drs held since Gillespie’s got ifficulties. : Official Manager is Mr. ;s Allen Law, chartered account f Charles A. Law, Saywell and any, 133 Pitt Street, Sydney, le Committee comprises Messrs. . Dixon (BALM Paints Pty.

E. R. Fordham (Ricegrowers’ erative Mills Ltd.) and A. F. )n (Riverstone Meat Co. Pty.

They took over from Mr. B. H. , of B. O. Smith and Son, red accounants, who had been ited Receiver by the Common i Trading Bank of Australia. : Bank, which had an equitable age over Gillespie’s assets, put ; Receiver because, it was re i at the time, the company was ; to meet its obligations owing ck of close supervision (Mr. t Gillespie, active head of the my, had been ill for a time), luch extended credit, and the al difficulties of collection dur e period of economic “squeeze” stralia, late 1961/early 1962.

Smith’s receivership termin n August 1, sufficient funds hav ccumulated *o Pay the Bank’s :d claim in full by July 13.

Now Making Profit )orting to creditors on July 6, Smith said that from July 1, to February 12, 1962 (when he le Receiver), Gillespie’s ned a loss of £19,569. During Jriod of receivership from Feb -12 to May 31, a profit of 52 had been earned, after pro ; for receiver’s management added: “It is my view that con ice of operations of the com

pany along the lines adopted by my self could produce a gradually in creasing profit rate, if active can vassing of the Islands were carried out and if the activities of a sub sidiary company styled Robert Gillespie (New Guinea) Limited were combined with the Sydney company. ‘The Register of Members of the NG company did not record the full shareholding of Robert Gillespie Pty.

Limited, which precluded me from taking control over its activities with out resorting to legal action. I have also been informed that additional shares have been issued by the directors of the NG company since the commencement of the Receiver ship.

“Furthermore, I would like to add that despite a written request to the directors of Robert Gillespie (NG) Ltd., I was unable to obtain any figures concerning the position of that company which is indebted to Robert Gillespie Ptv. Ltd. to the ex tent of £66,161.”

Review After Six Months The special resolutions passed at the creditors’ meeting on July 16 allow for Mr. Law to be Official Manager for a year, but the Creditors’

Committee has undertaken to review progress critically after six months.

If it then deems the situation unsat isfactory, it might recommend term inating the managership in favour of a liquidation.

However, Mr. Dixon, in his capacity as chairman of the earlier Provisional Committee, told creditors before the meeting that “the Com pany should be conducted at a profit under official management and that it is capable of and should be afforded an opportunity to rehabilitate its affairs.”

The meeting also gave power to the Official Manager and the Creditors’

Committee to make any compromise with small creditors —up to the amount of £5O, provided the com promise was not in excess of 10/- in the £.

Fiji Results Helped

CSR's Profit Rise

Referring to the establishment of South Pacific Sugar Mills Ltd., as a wholly owned subsidiary, Mr. J. W. Dunlop, chairman of Colonial Sugar Refining Co.

Ltd., told shareholders at the annual meeting in Sydney on July 18 that the 20 per cent, rise in net profit for the year ended March 31, 1962, reflected profits from Fiji sugar operations. The previous year a heavy loss was sustained by the Fiji section of the company’s business.

Mr. Dunlop said conditions in Fiji have become much more stable since the acceptance of the Sugar Inquiry Com mission’s report and the enactment of sugar industry legislation to implement it. The 1962 Fiji sugar-cane crop was expected to be the second largest on record.

The annual report underlined the way in which CSR has diversified in recent years—it has half-a-dozen building materials subsidiaries, two large industrial chemical companies (and a 40 per cent, share of a plastics company with B. F.

Goodrich P/L), a 400,000 shares holding in Planet Oil Co. and is a partner with five other big companies in United Telecasters Sydney Ltd., now seeking a licence to operate a commercial TV station in Sydney.

The company’s investments (which in clude shares in Fiji Industries Ltd. and Fletcher Holdings, cement and timber companies respectively in Fiji) stand at £4.9 million: the £2.3 million in listed company shares had a market value of £3.2 million at March 31.

The annual meeting approved resolu tions to split the £2O shares into £1 shares.

Bali Plantations Maintain

8 Per Cent. Dividend Rate

On July 27, Bali Plantations Ltd., New Guinea, copra and cocoa plantation owners, paid a four per cent, interim dividend for the half-year to February 28. The payment is in line with last year’s reduced eight per cent, dividend (when net profit fell by £7,200 to £39,269 and the dividend was cut from 12 per cent.).

Directors say copra production, in the current financial year, is steady on budgeted figures. Present indications are that cocoa production will exceed the level achieved in 1960-61. Cocoa output has brought slightly higher prices, while copra prices have remained steady.

Difficulties in Whaling

On Norfolk Is.

Unless plenty of humpback whales appear off shore at Norfolk Island in the next few weeks, Norfolk Whaling Company will have difficulty in filling its quota.

As in Australian and NZ waters, whales are not appearing—and Whaling Co. share prices are reacting unfavourably.

NI Co.’s chaser “Norfolk Whaler” arrived

in Norfolk Is. from Ballina in June, but only one whale had been taken to July 14. Scouting showed that either the northerly migration was late or there were few humpback whales left.

To try to cut down operating costs a meeting was held between management and labour at NI on July 4. The Station manager, Mr. Paton, told the men that the company could not open the season unless workers agreed to part-time em ployment.

This would mean payment only for work done when a whale was taken and processed at Cascade Bay station. The proposals were rejected by the workers, many of whom have alternative employ ment with the Administration during the current restoration and road building programme.

The Whaling Company’s general man ager. Mr. Coles, attended a second meet ing on July 8, when the company agreed to three proposals by the men. These were: • To work for one week without wages. • If an average of one and a half whales were taken daily during this period, the company would undertake to continue operations with normal wages and conditions. • During the trial period, the men would have an observer on the chaser to see that everything was done to kill all available whales of permissible size and type.

The first whale was taken early next day, but bad weather curtailed operations and no more were taken to July 14.

Tangalooma station, Queensland, has also been finding fewer whales this year after failing to fulfil its quota last year.

In NZ the picture is no brighter. Since 1956 when Hauraki Whaling Co. began whaling off the coast of Great Barrier Island, two comanies have gone under.

In 1959, 104 humpbacks were taken by Barrier Whaling Co., but only 25 were caught last year.

A recent report by a CSIRO fisheries expert said all indications were that the edible-oil species of whale were being depleted.—N.l. Correspondent.

Sandy Creek Co. Links Up

With Sangara (Holdings) Ltd.

Sandy Creek Gold Sluicing Ltd.’s chairman, Mr. H. H. Stitt, announced in mid-July that the Company had acquired £150,000 8 per cent, registered mortgage debentures in Sangara (Hold ings) Limited.

The consideration to the vendors for this purchase was the issue of 1,200,000 fully paid 2/6 shares in Sandy Creek GS Ltd.

The debentures are payable in cash — £25,000 on June 30, 1963, and there after at the rate of £lO,OOO every six months.

Messrs. George Forman and L. F.

McEachern have been appointed joint managing directors of the company. Mr.

McEachern has been a Director for some time, while Mr. Forman is a director also of SA Rubber Holdings Ltd. and, said the

announcement, “has had wide experience in fields that this company will be under taking in the near future”.

It will be recalled that Sandy Creek GS Ltd. was taken over in April by a syndicate comprising Messrs. L. P.

McEachern, F. N. McEachern, and H. H.

Stitt; the company had ceased mining in NG some time ago and its main asset was an investment in a Sydney suburban store, Hardware and General Supplies Pty. Ltd.

Sangara (Holdings) Ltd. in May pur chased the Cecil, Goroka and Wau hotels from Papua and New Guinea Develop ment Corporation Ltd., which had taken them over from Hamac Holdings Ltd. (see “PIM”, June, 1962).

London Copra Market

Quiet—Prices Still Down

Little activity, or interest, has been shown in the overseas market for oilseeds recently because practically everyone in the trade was attending the June Congress of the International Association of Oilseed Crushers in France, and then the period thereafter has been the British holiday season, reported Mr. lan McDonald, chairman of the P-NG Copra Marketing Board in July.

Forecast of world copra and coconut oil exports, given at the Congress, was 1.254.000 metric tons (last year 1,246,000), but this time it runs second to soyabean estimates of 1,322,000 metric tons (only 973.000 last year, in second place).

Estimates of vegetable oils for 1962 are up 9 per cent, on 1961, compared with 7 per cent, for animal fats and marine oils. However, this latter 7 per cent, increase is giving oil crushers some concern regarding competition from animal fats in the future.

Once again marine oils and US stock piled coconut oil have exercised a dominating effect on the market during the month, said Mr. McDonald, though only 4,000 tons of 7,000 tons of coconut oil offered were sold. However, a major buyer purchased 50,000 tons of whale oil at a price around £5 per ton less than that paid for similar oil several months ago, and it was this deal which probably did more than anything else to depress the market.

At the moment there is a distinct air of quiet in all markets, particularly in copra and palm oils, with only minor interest in groundnuts, despite some fairly heavy purchases made recently by Spain instead of the US soyabean pur chases which had been expected ho take place. As a result of this groundnut deal, and notwithstanding the US Govern ment price support for soyabeans, market pressures have been stronger than politics, with the result that soyabeans also suffered a price decline.

The effects of this decline were, of course, transmitted to other oilseeds, and thus neither copra nor coconut oil was able to escape the general trend —average London price of copra in June was £Stg.s6/12/6 (which applied to the P-NG Board’s July shipments).