Who paid so much in Suva?

Speculation ran rife in early January as to who it was who

paid a hefty $250,000 for a

small freehold commercial site in the centre of Suva.

Fiji property values are soaring but the deal was described by real estate experts as Suva’s most spectacular to date.

Although his solicitor, Mr. R. I.

Kapadia, declined to comment on the sale, the name most linked with the transaction was that of Mr. Brijlal, of Brijlal and Co., the Gumming Street duty free merchants.

It was also rumoured that over seas investors—one said to be as far afield as Japan—were involved in the purchase; and that a multi-storey office block would be erected on the site, to accommodate, among others, the First National City Bank, of the US, which plans to open a Suva branch.

The site was owned by the J. P.

Bayly Estate and covers about 30 perches on the corner of Pratt and Joske Streets, in the commercial heart of Suva. Occupying it is a somewhat dilapidated building, housing three shops, a second-hand furniture store and auction room.

Mr. N. McFarlane, a trustee of the J. P. Bayly Estate, said that nearly 20 tenders had been received, in cluding one from Sydney.

Charities and voluntary organisa ti.ons w . i] i benefit f rom the sale of the Mr. McFarlane said that the Board had wide objects of charity under the Charitable Trusts Ordinance. It helps old people, sporting bodies and educa tional organisations, among others.

Mr. P- Bayly, a millionaire bachelor landowner, rubber planter and grazier died in Fiji in 1963. He was then 80. He was born in Fiji, the son of a European tradesman w ho went there in the early days. He sta rted his working life as a clerk but when very young borrowed £3OO from his father and bought land near Nadi, where he grew cane, , , , , „ h.v wr, aqq “' red u a ,? d to be tbe wea,thiest man ' n F «>- He . made bequests to nieces and provision for old employees in his will —which also left £5OO to the Suva Clt Y Council to establish a reference hbrary on tropical agriculture and an undisclosed sum to erect a clock in the centre of Suva as a memorial to his father. (So far the clock does n °t a PP ear have eventuated), Most of his estate went, however, to the J. P. Bayly Trust which he had set up in his lifetime. About 15 years ago he endowed the J. P. Bayly Clinic in Suva.

Someone thought this site and the building on it were worth $250,000 in January.

It is at the corner of Joske and Pratt Streets, Suva, a block behind The Triangle.