Big American investment in New

Hebrides resort promotion . . .

As part of an ambitious American real estate and resort promotion at Hog Harbour, Santo, New Hebrides, over 500 residents of Hawaii have bought Hog Harbour land. Other Hawaii residents are expected to buy more. Some of the land has been sold for SUS 12,000 an acre.

Over 400 lots of land, varying from one-acre beachfront blocks to nearly five-acre inland areas, are on sale or have been sold by Honolulu promoter, Mr. Harold E. Peacock.

Mr. Peacock has announced plans for a plush resort and living area at Lokalee Beach, Hog Harbour, which he says will include everv imaginable facility for tourists as well as a public square, shopping centre, and land set aside for schools, hospitals, and churches. A 3,600 ft airstrip and an 18-hole golf course are to be in cluded, according to Mr. Peacock.

Details to be settled

His plans feature restricted rooms per acre for prospective hoteliers, high-rise limits for builders, rules on architectural styles and which materials can be used in buildings.

Mr. Peacock describes his project as a “South Seas land development that will offer investors island hop ping, trading with natives, beach combing and adventure”.

He says that because the resort community is master-planned, in dividual property owners will have an investment that will appreciate in a brief growth period.

He has an office, Oceania Estates Ltd., in Vila, to handle sales and inquiries, Mr. E. L. Forde, president of Hawaii’s Ernie Forde’s Travel Service and Samoahi International Corpora tion (with property interests in Western Samoa and the New Heb rides) told PIM in March in answer to questions that Mr. Peacock’s major plans for Santo would be “consumated in 1972”, but he stressed that many details had to be ironed out. He said he and Mr. Peacock would be visiting the New Hebrides in April to discuss a hotel and tours.

“I personally have three one-acre lots on the beach at Hog Harbour, two and a half acres on the bluff overlooking the harbour and three and a half acres on the plateau,”

Mr. Forde said.

“Almost all lots in the original

sub-division have now been sold.

Some are now being resold.

“A new area is now being sold on the cape nearby. I paid SUSI2,OOO an acre for my waterfront beach lots at Hog Harbour. Half-acre lots will be SUS9,OOO, I understand.”

Mr. Forde said Mr. Peacock would have six rooms of a new hotel built at Hog Harbour by July. Eighteen more rooms, would be finished by September when the hotel would be completed.

He said the rooms would be “cottage-type”; a dining room would be added and all room prices would be “American plan” at a yet un decided rate. Mr. Forde’s travel company would handle the sale of rooms to other travel agents and “various tours” were not to start until September.

Santo, the biggest island of the

condominium, features a still-good system of American-built roads over 23 years old. Prolific vegeta tion covers most of Santo and trees over 100 ft high straddled by huge vines grow up to the roadsides.

The Hog Harbour area is the opposite end of the island to its main town, Luganville, and it is seldom visited. Several British and French copra plantations are there— but little else.

. . . And some more in Fiji

After six months of high-pressure planning and travelling between Fiji and the US, former US Consul in Fiji, Mr. Tom Hill, breathed a sigh of relief in March. Toberua Island, which he is promoting as a “private pleasure-kingdom in the Pacific,” is now open for business.

The first of his high-paying clientele were due in April. Charges are SF34 a day per person, SFS2 a day for two. A group of 20 can have exclusive use of the island and its facilities at a “special” rate of $450 a day.

That’s not too bad at all, con sidering that everything— except one’s alcoholic consumption—is included in the tariff.

With American attorney, Mr.

Barclay Wagner, who was in Fiji in 1963-64 on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, Tom Hill bought Toberua last year from Australian business man, Mr. J. McHugh, who still retains an interest.

They then formed the multi purpose South Pacific Development Corporation, with Toberua Island Ltd. a subsidiary.

The five-acre island—“ That’s only at high tide,” says Mr. Hill. “It is

several hundred acres when the tide is out”—is 90 minutes by car and fast motor boat from Suva.

There are now 10 spacious and extremely well-finished bure-style cot tages, surrounded by green lawns and tropical plants, with well-defined paths to help one avoid the occasional falling coconut.

Guests can waterski, snorkel, sail, fish and sunbake in a climate brightened because the island is out side Fiji’s rain belt.

Mr. Hill’s future plans include reclamation of part of the island’s reef, a large marina and a desalinat ing plant.

Not so long ago, Toberua was little more than sand and coconuts. Now it has a tall flagpole, bure-style cot tages, gaily-striped sun umbrellas, lawns and gardens—and high-paying guests.