Trade Briefs

'-p , . , .. fh^ T °cfv m Pf* roleum agreemen with the six-member consortium—Shell, British Petroleum, Aquitaine, Ampol, Gulf and Republic—was signed in ° n ??, bru f ary 3 by , tbe , n ‘l er for natural re sources and the manager of Tonga Shell, representing the participants.

Prince Tuipelehake the Tongan witnessed the ceremony which confirmed concession rights covenng 6,000 square miles onshore and offshore, including the main islands and adjoining waters, and approved two years of exploration and drilling.

Geological and seismic surveys have been completed and the con sortium is now awaiting results from The Hague B 0 Q ne of New Zealand’* hiaaect earthmoving equipment suppliers, clyde Engineering Ltd., has moved i n t G Fiji.

It has formed Clyde Engineering (Pacific) Ltd., a Fiji company in which the local firm, Reddy Con struction Ltd., has a two-fifths share holding. The New Zealand company, which was established in 1936, sup plies earthmoving, tunnelling, drilling and mining machinery, plus a wide range of other heavy equipment.

Manager of the new Fiji company, Mr. J. Fiebig, said Clyde Engineer ing had been selling equipment to Pacific Island customers for many years. It now planned to base Pacific Island business in Fiji. • Relations between the London Times and New Guinea planters may become strained. In a recent article by Stewart Harris, the paper looks at wage costs and says: “Grossly unjust native wages are be ing improved.” • Talks were going on in Auck land in February between the Leader of the Australian Opposition, Mr.

Gough Whitlam, and the NZ Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Watt, about the possibility of a joint Aus tralia-New Zealand shipping line. Mr.

Whitlam was quoted as saying the line would serve the South Seas as well as Tasman trade. • About 140 Fijians have been recruited by the NZ Tobacco Growers’ Federation to work in the tobacco growing area at Motueka in the South Island. Employed by about 40 growers, the men will be in NZ about four months. It is the first time Fijian labour has been used for such a purpose and is the result of a labour shortage. • An area of 580 acres at Namosi in the interior of Viti Levu, Fiji, has been taken over by a Canadian min ing company, Namosi Mining Ltd. It has acquired the prospecting rights for base metal originally held by a local syndicate. • The first national group of New Zealand manufacturers to visit the Pacific since 1965 was due to leave NZ on February 28. The 17day tour was to include New Cale donia, Fiji, the two Samoas and Tahiti. The 15 members of the group represented everything from travel bags to animal vaccines. • Western Samoa’s Minister of Land, Polataivao Fosi, signed two leases in February for hotel develop ment involving several million dollars.

The first allows Mr. R. H. Hadley of Washington to lease 60 acres of government and customary land at Taumesina for 20 years for a 300room hotel. The second allows Seagai Saimana Faumuina, hotel promoter of Hawaii, to lease 40 acres at Lefaga. Not less than 25 per cent, of the Taumesina shareholding will be open to Western Samoans; the lease will cost $3,000 a year.

Local participation will also be allowed in the 200-room Lefaga hotel; that lease will cost $5OO a year, rising by $5OO every five years.