Battle for

the 'Bulletin'

Noumea’s first Sunday news paper appeared in July, pub lished by the La France Australe, the island’s only daily, owned almost exclusively by the Societe Le Nickel mining company.

The 16-page Sunday paper appears actually on Saturday and is sold for 20 francs.

It’s intended largely as a family entertainment over the weekend.

In the meantime, a major tussle has developed over ownership of the island’s next most-frequent newspaper, the twice-weekly Bulletin du Com merce.

The battle for ownership seems to have begun when the nickel-ore export quota issue broke out in May. The inde pendent Bulletin du Commerce was notable in its defence of the petits mineurs (independent Caledonian mine operators) and those who depended on them for work.

At the same time the paper queried at length the policy of the monopolist producer of nickel metal—the Societe Le Nickel.

Contenders for ownership of the Bulletin thus became Mr, Edouard Pentecost, largest in dependent Caledonian mine operator, and the giant, Paris based, Societe Le Nickel. A spokesman for the nickel com pany stated that while “psycho logically” it would prefer not to own the paper, it was nevertheless anxious that its control should not fall into the “wrong” hands.

The Bulletin was founded by the Caledonian family, Legras, 71 years ago. Just last year the family sold its paper and printery for a modest $ A 3 0,000.

Figures quoted in the current nickel-motivated bidding for ownership are estimated at being at least five times this price.