Coffee Society

Is Really Big Business

From a Port Moresby Correspondent One of the biggest native enter prises in Papua-New Guinea, if not the biggest, is the Kundiawa Coffee Society. In fact it has become so big and so successful in the 18 months or so that it has been in existence that it has caused all the usual amount of speculation—includ ing some in the House of Assembly, PRESIDENT of the society is old Komdom Aguano, ex-MLC, who was defeated at the House of Assembly elections in 1964 but is still very much Mr. Big in the Chimbu District. The society employs about 400 local people, a European manager and a mechanic and a Papuan secretary. Its factory has all the latest machinery, including an electronic device that picks out dud coffee beans from those that are f.a.q.

The turnover in the first year of operations is said to be something like £500,000. The Chimbu people have a nose for money and it is already being predicted that some time in the future they will be the financial manipulators of the in dependent state of New Guinea. In the meantime they simply like to get their hands on money for the sheer pleasure of possessing it.

The amazing thing about this enterprise is that the vast majority of the shareholders are completely

illiterate. What will happen, local observers are fond of asking them selves, when they produce a few high school graduates?

The whole enterprise is under the guidance of the Co-operatives Branch of the P-NG Department of Trade and Industry and the officer of the branch stationed in Kundiawa is very closely concerned with the society.

The Department not only master minds it, but it is also responsible for audit of the books. It was this aspect of the enterprise that brought Mr. lan Downs to his feet at the

November Assembly Session to question the wisdom of do-it-yourself audits in enterprises as big as this one. He suggested that the audit should be done by some other or ganisation or some other department.

He was not suggesting, he said, that there was anything wrong with the conduct of the Kundiawa Coffee Society as a business, but he did point out that there had been three managers at the mill that processes the coffee in the previous 18 months; and that there was a tremendous amount of money and a tremendous amount of coffee involved.

Mr. Downs got the reply that he probably expected from the official side of the house. Said Mr. Harold Reeve, Assistant Administrator (Economic Affairs): “The Depart ment of Trade and Industry which has undertaken certain duties of audit has done those duties to the best of its ability without any bias and without deference to any outside or competitive influence”.

Nonetheless Mr. Downs was in strumental in having an amendment made to the Co-operatives Societies Bill, 1965, introduced later in the meeting, that goes some way towards meeting his objection to internal audits.

The Motor Boating and Water Skiing Bill failed to make the grade at the November meeting of the P-NG House of Assembly. Those many coastal people who indulge in these sports in the Territory can now relax. The bill sought power to license boats and drivers and to prohibit skiing in certain areas but it was quietly dropped when unofficial members indicated non-support.

Geic Party Leaders

The Christian Democratic Party, the second political party in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, was formed at a meeting attended by about 70 people on Betio, Tarawa, in late November (PIM, Dec., p. 7). Committee members of the party are (seated, from left): Messrs. Simon F.

Edwards (secretary), businessman and unofficial member of Advisory Council; Temete Tebetaio, MBE (president), retired co-operative officer and unofficial member of Advisory Council; David Murdoch, BEM, (vice-president), foreman. Wholesale Society construction; and Teroron Batiara (treasurer), higher clerical officer with Administration. Standing (from left) are: Messrs. Ikakeau Tonganibeia, Co-op. inspector; Tekinaiti Kaiteie, "Met" observer; Dr.

Tiko Toga, AMO; Messrs. Sam Highland, chief clerk.

Wholesale Society, Tony Moy Tauniu, assistant mechanical supervisor, PWD, and Semisi Peso, assistant supervisor of works, PWD.

Photo: Henry Schutz.