Pacific Commerce and Produce

difficulties With

oca! Sales, So NG

Vill Export Beef

Papua-New Guinea, which >r the last 20 years has been ying to build up a beef in jstry so that the importation : fresh meat can be curtailed, ill become a beef exporter be ►re Christmas when 350 head : three-year bullocks will go to

e Philippines or Hong Kong.

IHE cattle will go from the Gusap ■ property near the Markham imu Divide in Morobe District lich is owned by R. L. Anderson terests.

The managing-director of the Lisap cattle station, Mr. Sid Staines, id that the export move follows e failure to find a regular outlet r mature beef in Papua-New iiinea. It was impossible under isting conditions of lack of re geration facilities, government re ictions and transport difficulties to rry on business profitably through :al avenues of distribution.

The new move follows Administra >n permission to export fat cattle ly. Mr. Staines said that a deal with dgety and New Zealand Loan and J Clausen cattle-shipping line would rtainly go through before Christ as. He said that there were pro ects of shipping stud cattle to arth Borneo, too, if the Admini ation would lift export restrictions. (FOOTNOTE: Papua-New Guinea ported meat to the value of over 58,000 in 1964, well over half of in the form of beef. Since 1955 5 Administration has been sub lising a scheme for importing cattle build up Territory herds at a cost the Administration of about 50,000).

Carpenter Holdings

onfinues 'At High

evels Of Profit'

U- R. CARPENTER Holdings Ltd, » hoped to be able to maintain ; current high levels of profit and rning rate, the chairman, Mr. R. B. irpenter, told the annual meeting Canberra on November 19.

He spoke of continuing expansion by the group “both in manufacture and industry in Australia and the Pacific Islands as a whole”. Store trading results had been satisfactory, and efforts in other directions had been as fruitful.

As previously reported, con solidated net profit exceeded £2.3 million for the first time; earning rate exceeded 35 per cent.; and dividend was maintained at 15 per cent.

Mr. Carpenter said one possible exception to satisfactory progress was the copra industry in Fiji, which had been affected by a hurricane early in 1965. The damage had had little or no effect upon the group’s trading results for the past year but the tonnage offered for milling had now decreased sharply, and was likely to continue at a much reduced volume for the rest of this financial year. Recovery could be rapid after the middle of next year.

Maintenance of production in the New Guinea copra mills was assured, and effort was being made to increase this volume to compensate for the lesser quantity to be milled in Fiji.

Mr. Carpenter said that the development of the organisation, in the Islands and Australia, had im posed a very heavy demand for development funds on the holding company and the larger subsidiaries.

In many cases there had been a considerable advance in merchandise sales, and a great deal of additional money had been employed in carrying increased stocks and in financing the increase in business.

Through all these circumstances, directors had maintained a relatively high level of liquidity. However, the company might be pressed this year, as the directors had elected to take up its new share entitlements in Woolworths, Ansett and CAGA at a cost of just under £900,000.

Commenting in detail on Islands results, Mr. Carpenter said very satisfactory results were anticipated for the Fiji-based subsidiaries for the current year. Morris Hedstrom Ltd. had increased turnover mainly because of sugar exports and better copra prices. Divisions in Western Samoa and Tonga had operated satisfactorily and should continue to do so.

W. R. Carpenter (Fiji) Ltd. enjoyed improved trading conditions in most divisions, although the hur ricane which upset copra milling had also had an effect on shipping and

on merchandise sales in copra-pro ducing areas.

In New Guinea there were increases in merchandise sales and produce handled, despite very keen competi tion, and every effort was being made to take account of all new develop ment opportunities.

Coconut Products Ltd’s results were slightly above those of the previous year. Development of estates in the planting of cocoa was almost finalised and the company was now engaged on a full-scale inter-planting and re-planting of old copra estates with a view to their complete rehabilitation.

Much progress had been made since the land was occupied in October of last year. Substantial quantities of tea seed were available and extremely dry weather had al lowed the company to devote much time to ploughing and development of land.

Papuan Coffee Rust

"Eradicated"

THE coffee rust disease in the Central District of Papua has now been eradicated—along with the coffee trees. New planting is for bidden.

The outbreak was discovered in July in the Sogeri area, in the foot hills behind Port Moresby. Most of this coffee was grown in small plots on a non-commercial scale.

Following the discovery all coffee trees were cut down, sprayed, burnt and the stumps dug out.

Another small infected area was subsequently found in the Rigo sub district and trees in this area have, also been destroyed.

Nickel Report Denied

A REPORT that, following tin -C*- formation of two companiei owned jointly by the United States Kaiser and France’s Nickel Society nickel-smelting would be carriec out in Australia, was denied in Nev Caledonia in November. The rumou: caused a certain amount of gloom ii New Caledonia where the economy is based largely on the export o nickel from the smelters of th< Nickel Society,

Guadalcanal Plains

Developments

Guadalcanal plains ltd will begin its new year o operations when it starts to sow dn rice on its Tetere plains estate ii December. Sowing will continue intc January to take advantage of th< wet season.

Preparation of 700 acres begai last August, using local labour anc modern agricultural equipment.

The rice should be ready fo] harvesting in April and soya bear planting will then commerce.

Court Developments

Over L. F. McEocherr

Mr- Justice Frost, Of Th.

Papua-New Guinea Supremt Court, in November restrainec Leonard Francis McEachern fron acting as a director of Cosmopolitai Hotel Ltd. The judge’s order causec great interest in New Guinea busines: circles.

Shareholders in the company which operates the Hotel Cosmo politan on the Rabaul water front, asked the court to issue the order, and also to restrain McEachen from continuing as manager of th( company, or as an employee. The chief shareholders are the Sandj Creek Mining Co. (of which Mr. S L. Eskell is managing director) anc Mrs. Una Adams.

Mr. Justice Frost said there was nc need to make the second ordei sought, as McEachern had left the hotel and could no longer “meddle with the company’s money or pro perty”.

He ordered McEachern to account in full for his dealings with the com pany’s money and property over the previous two years. It was stated that the Cosmopolitan company, in a recent year, made approximately £45,000 profit.

Until recently, McEachern had

;ted as chairman of the board and anager of the hotel.

Mr. Justice Frost said that Mc achern had legitimately filled a .sual vacancy on the board follow g a substantial change in share ildings in 1962. McEachern after at never held more than one share the company. His casual director lip should have expired in June, >62, but he remained in office, here had been no ordinary meetings : the company since.

McEachern used assumed powers appoint lan Alexander McDougall a director, Mr. Justice Frost said, e had carried on the business of e company, purporting to hold rectors’ meetings with McDougall, id opened a new bank account in s own name for some of the com iny money.

McEachern had signed a document lich purported to lease the hotel isiness to an outside company for ,000 a year for five years.

The company referred to is Palm ivern Pty. Ltd. of Port Moresby, which Mr. Raymond Lord is a rector.

Sandy Creek Co., a major share ilder in Cosmopolitan Hotel Ltd., closely associated with Sangara d., and Sangara Ltd. holds the ntrolling interest in Morobe Hotels d. (Lae, Wau and Goroka). Mr.

L. Eskell, formerly managing rector of South Pacific Post Ltd., is w the dominant director of Sandy eek, Sangara and Morobe Hotels.

tote Of The

lopra Market

IR. lAN McDONALD, chairman of the P-NG Copra Marketing >ard, reported in Port Moresby in e November; The average of the spot market ices for Philippine FM copra rose ring October to £Stg.76/10/- per i, and this trend has continued er the past three weeks, with the ice ranging between £76/10/- and 0.

Considerably more copra is being ipped from the Philippines to irope at present, although corn ring tonnages to the end of ptember this year with those of 64 the overall tonnage is still down around 75,000 tons. However, as s tonnage represents slightly less an three days consumption for s UK and Europe the effect on the arket price should not be very sat.

It is felt that the general price idency over the next few months ll mainly be steady. Whilst there ; prospects of increased production

in most oilseeds, the demand pro spects are also excellent, and so there will continue to be a fairly fine balance between the two.

In regard to world export supplies, it is interesting to note that copra and coconut oil are both on the in crease. This is the case in P-NG where production has been increasing by almost 2 per cent, a year for some years. This year P-NG pro duction has been very good and might even reach 120,000 tons for the year, an increase of 5 per cent, over 1964.

NG's Pyrethrum

Industry Starts

AFTER only about one month’s operation, the new £200,000 factory established by Stafford Allen & Sons Ltd. at Mount Hagen, New Guinea, has processed 14 tons of pyrethrum flowers.

The processing has resulted in the first two drums of concentrated extract to be produced in the Ter ritory. The drums in late November were ready for shipment to the UK, where the extract would be refined, and incorporated into in secticide.

ANG Bid For

PI Timbers

DIRECTORS of Pacific Islands Timbers (Holdings) Ltd., of Papua, in November recommended an offer from ANG Holdings Ltd. for a share exchange takeover of the timber company. The offer is for two ANG 10/- shares for each five 5/- shares in Pacific Islands.

ANG Holdings was recently registered in Papua. It is sponsored by the Australia New Guinea Cor poration Ltd., which proposes to merge the timber company in its other shareholdings in New Guinea.

These involve tea and coffee interests, among other things. ANG Holdings will have a paid capital of £307,500 if the offer succeeds, as it no doubt will. This would result in it being 57 per cent, owned by the ANG Cor poration and 43 per cent, owned by former shareholders in Pacific Islands

Timbers. ANG Holdings is expected later to be listed on the Sydney stock exchange.

Directors of ANG are Mr. Steven Rich. Sir James Kirby, Messrs. M.

T. Hansen, F. M. Hewitt, F. M.

Osborne, D. P. Sharp and N. F.

Stevens. Messrs, Rich, Hansen, Hewitt and Sharp are also on the board of Pacific Islands.

Pacific Islands Timbers (Holdings) incurred another loss in the year ended June 30 —£18,000, compared with the previous year’s loss of £38,013. The company had a small profit of £2,675 in 1962-63.

The directors reported that sales for the second half of the year increased considerably and it was expected that operations for the full year would prove satisfactory.

Australian

Brokers Hit

THE slump in the Australian share market in recent months has resulted in a sharp fall in the value of stock exchange seats, and in re trenchments in the securities in dustries. While production and employment are high, the share market has suffered through com petition for investors’ money and tight liquidity conditions.

The official finance newsletter of the Australian News and Information Bureau reported in November that turnover in the past 12 months is estimated to have fallen at least 15 per cent, in value in Sydney and Melbourne. Broking houses are re ducing their staffs, and there is a general expectation of mergers, to reduce costs.

New brokerage rates introduced recently have not assisted the brokers, and the declining business in equities has had an all-round dampening effect. The restrictions by overseas countries on foreign investment have also influenced the securities market.

Csr Dividend Maintained: The

CSR Co. Ltd. revealed its strong internal strength and the value of its diversifica tion programme when it announced an unchanged 6V4 per cent, interim dividend for 1965-66. The directors have not yet issued their half-yearly report—it is due on December 24 —but it is likely that the returns from sugar are much lower than last year because of the depressed state of the world market.