Pacific Commerce and Produce

Cigarette Industry

For New Guinea

Papua-New Guinea got a much welcomed new industry j une — a cigarette factory at Madang which will produce tyers Gold Leaf king size filter cigarettes.

EY will retail in all parts of the territory for 2/- a packet of 20, selling the 180 million machine imported cigarettes a year by as as 1/- a packet. :king the enterprise is the £2Ol »n British Tobacco Company tralia) Ltd., the Common h’s sixth largest organisation and t company of W. D. and H. O. (Aust.) Ltd. e New Guinea company, a y-owned subsidiary of Wills t.) —W. D. and H. O. Wills JG) Ltd. —has been registered a nominal capital of £200,000. lat, £150,000 has already been id in building and equipping the factory and in the purchase of s. e New Guinea organisation is second Islands manufacturing ire for Wills, which in 1955, in nction with the British-American cco Company, formed the Fiji cco Co. Ltd., in Suva. The Suva >any shares the local cigarette ifacturing market with Carreras ) Ltd. The Fiji Tobacco Corn- Ltd., also plans extensive ex on soon. lairman of the British Tobacco Mr. T. J. N. Foley, is head of New Guinea subsidiary. Other tors are, Messrs. H. Widdup, C.

Noble, and N. F. Vincent, ager is Mr Roger Georgeson; action manager is Mr. E. B. s; secretary is Mr. William C.

J. r. Georgeson was, until recently, /ing manager in the Fiji factory, responsibility also extends to the ic Tobacco and Development pany, which is also at Madang which makes trade twist tobacco. ; bought the twist factory from interests two years ago when small factory was in financial ulties. r, Foley told PIM that the new ette factory was the direct result

of Administration encouragement and collaboration with Wills in recent years.

Big Price Concession The company had been able to make the big price concession (cigarette prices vary from 2/11 to 3/6 in the Territory) because the Administration had exempted tem porarily, Territory-made Players cigarettes from excise and allowed it to import duty free the special grades of tobacco leaf needed.

He said the Administration had however stressed that both conces sions would be re-assessed at the end of a specified period in the hope that the company would extend operations to cover all production in the Terri tory.

The company would co-operate in an experimental programme to de termine the possibility of producing acceptable flue cured tobacco leaf in New Guinea when a market for

Territory-made cigarettes was estab lished.

In Port Moresby, the P-NG Ad ministrator, Sir Donald Cleland, de scribed the new manufacturing in dustry as a “shot in the arm”, for Territory development.

Nearly half a million machine-made cigarettes are smoked every day in P-NG, On the Australian mainland consumption is 50 million a day. The new factory hopes to attract the growing native market.

Players Gold Leaf will be sold in a hinged lid flip-top box.

TOBACCO EXECUTIVES: At top are two of the directors of Wills' New Guinea company, Mr. H. Widdup and Mr. C. B.

Noble. Lower, from left, Mr. E. B. Hollis, production manager; Mr. R. Georgeson, manager; and Mr. W. C. Mead, secretary.

Another of the Madang company's directors Mr. N. F. Vincent (left) inspects a section of Wills' new air-conditioned factory at Madang.