Makers are putting clock

back, says island agent

Many Australian manufacturers exporting to the Pacific Islands could improve their standing and their profits by using the services of island agents, says Mr Henry Cumines, managing director of Sydney-based island agent, Henry Cumines Pty Ltd. For example, they sent sales staff to the islands who failed to get to “first base” because they did not understand the area, he says.

Now some manufacturers are thinking of putting the clock back by reverting to a system which failed them 20 years ago—selling direct to the customer in the Pacific. Twenty years ago they found that having to do all the documentation, pay wharfage bills, etc, and then have to wait for their money was costing more than they paid agents in commission.

“Sometimes they had to wait 60 days for their money”, Mr Cumines said. “They soon realised that if they

traded through an islands agent they were paid on invoice, and if they really wanted their money quickly, sometimes a telephone call was enough. All they pay the agent now is five per cent—it will cost them 12 per cent if they do it themselves.

Some of them make the mistake of trying to trade in the Pacific as they do in Asia or Europe, “Four or five million people over millions of square miles of ocean is not an easy market because one ship can be required to carry a wide variety of goods, entailing a huge amount of paper work. One shipment to Europe, on the other hand, could be made up of one line only, and requires little paperwork. Manufac turers who set up their own export sections won’t save money. All they will do is make their goods dearer in the islands”, Mr Cumines said there are other

areas where manufacturers fail to meet the demands of clients in the Pacific. One mistake is failing to en sure goods ordered go to the ship.

If a consignment ordered by an agent misses a ship the agent does not know about it till he gets loading documents from the shipping com pany. That does not happen till the ship completes loading, and more often after the ship sails. The agent chasing the manufacturer often finds the goods are still in the warehouse or the manufacturer’s yard. The re sult is a dissatisfied customer in the Islands, perhaps having to wait two months for the next ship.

Manufacturers paying attention to detail and consulting islands agents invariably reaped the rewards. They were able to keep up with the chang ing pattern of islands trading because they were well advised. Agents ad vised them when a customer was looking for something new.

Like many other islands agents, Mr Cumines is appalled at the in efficiency of the transport system servicing the islands. He does not lay all the blame on road transport com panies, or shipping companies. In fact, he sympathises with them in having to cope with traffic jams, lack of berths, industrial trouble and labour shortages. But he is upset when a ship from Melbourne, for PNG, scheduled to call at Sydney, bypasses Sydney without a word to shippers or the islands agents.

The race to book space for cargo for PNG is another matter of con cern. Often a shipper will book space on two or three ships for one con signment. With all his cargo loaded the shipper neglects to inform any one he does not require the extra space. This often leads to ships sail ing without full cargoes, which adds up to increased costs.

In spite of the problems, Mr Cumines is not unhappy with his calling. He has been an islands agent since leaving school in 1941. first with C. Sullivan and Co, and then with Robert Gillespie Pty Ltd. He started his own company in 1966.

Multi-million boost

for Fiji's fisheries

The Fiji fishing industry, already the second biggest export earner in the country, will get a boost when a multi-million dollar cannery is built next to the fish-freezing factory at Levuka by 1976. Yellowfin and alba core tuna will be canned for export to Japan, Europe and the United States.

The Fiji Government, under a new agreement with the Japanese-owned Pacific Fishing Co, will get a 25 per

nt interest in the cannery in return r letting the company have land, tarf and other facilities. The Pacific shing Co will get a tuna processing d export monopoly in Fiji for 10 ars, although Fiji citizens will still allowed to go into the industry if ;y wish. Employment will treble er five years.

The Pacific Fishing Co is exporting out 10,000 tons of frozen tuna a ar from Levuka. It is a subsidiary C. Itoh and Co Ltd, Osaka, and chiryo Ltd, Tokyo. The Fijian welopment Fund Board has 9,513 the 280,000 shares.

looker shelves

iji estate plans

Because some of the Fijian owners the land refused to co-operate, ooker Fiji Ltd a subsidiary of the g Australian-based land and housing tate developers, has shelved plans r building a new suburb near ivavou village on the Queen’s Road •out three miles from Suva’s centre.

The area, spread over 117 acres, as to have provided about 300 sidential lots, a small shopping ntre, a primary school and a sports Id. Hooker’s commitment also pro ded for water, sewerage and elec icity and paved roads. The Fijian vners would have received part of

the selling price of each lot (all on a Native Land lease) and annual rentals, estimated at $40,000 in the early years of development.

Work on the site came to an abrupt halt in October, 1973, when a minority of the owners staged a confrontation. Since then, there has been no work, and the contractors have removed equipment and materials.

The Native Land Trust Board and the Fiji Government, including the Deputy Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, failed in negotia tions aimed at getting the project going again. Hooker is prepared to continue the development, on what ever basis the Native Land Trust Board and the Fijian owners agree.

The board will review the situation in a few months.

No Japanese aerial

partners tor Tonga

Tonga’s flirtation with Japanese business tycoons is over. Plans to establish a national airline in partner ship with the Japanese have been abandoned, King Taufa’ahau Tupou TV announced at the closing of the 741 h session of the Legislative As sembly in November. He bracketed with that news a statement that the four oil prospecting firms remaining

in the consortium, which spent S 3 mil lion in a fruitless search for oil in Tonga, have withdrawn.

The four are Ampol Exploration, Aquitaine Tonga, Republic Inter national and Gulf Oil of Tonga. Two partners who withdrew early in the piece were Shell and BP.

The withdrawal, said the king, did not mean the end of the search for off shore oil as feelers were going out to American and Japanese com panies.

So far as airlines are concerned, the king hinted that there had been other negotiations elsewhere for a suitable partner but nothing had been decided.

He didn’t elaborate, but he was possibly talking about the suggestion (PIM, July, p 77) that Tonga and Nauru should spread wings together.

On the other hand, Tonga might have decided, with Air Pacific in mind, not to rock the canoe but go along with Fiji’s aspira ions for a regional air line.

NZ group hopes to

mine Cook's nodules

New Zealand and the Cook Islands will be the only beneficiaries from the Cook Islands seabed manganese deposits, said to be the richest in the world. RAO Holdings, a privately

owned New Zealand group, recently put a proposition to the Cook Islands Government, but details were with held. No firm announcement was ex pected before the Cook Islands elec tions.

Mr R. A. Owens founder of RAO Holdings, said the deposits would be exploited by a new, untried method.

He also said the profits would be shared between NZ and the Cook Islands, though not on a 50-50 basis.

Americans enter

Le Nickel

The US mining company AMAX announced in October that through the stockmarket it had purchased a 10.7 per cent shareholding in the Paris-based Societe Le Nickel (SLN) which is the sole company smelting nickel in New Caledonia, The Americans had planned an entry into Caledonian nickel back in 1969 when the French Penarroya joined with AMAX to form PENA MAX, in a plan to treat lateritic ore in southern New Caledonia. Along with other international projects, this has not been realised and to date the French SLN remains the only company smelting on the island.

Its latest venture involves a merger with the state oil company Aquitaine (SNPA) in a 50-50 partnership to

be known as Societe Metallurgique Le Nickel (SMLN). Once negotia tions are completed over their tax formula in New Caledonia and the partnership can be formally estab lished, it is intended that the SMLN should extend current SUN operations to include treatment of southern lateritic ore.

Meanwhile the smelting project for the north has been shelved (see p 6) and Japan, battling with the energy crisis, has announced plans to cut back its imports of Caledonian nickel ore by a third. During the first nine months of 1974, the Caledonians exported 2.6 million tonnes of nickel ore to Japan, while the island’s metal production over the same period totalled 50,417 tonnes.

PNG's biggest

fishery closes

The oil-rich sheik of Kuwait on the Persian Gulf has closed down his fishing company in Papua New Guinea, throwing more than 200 New Guineans out of work. One reason for the closure—rising fuel costs!

The company, Gulf Fisheries Pty Ltd, is PNG’s biggest fishing com pany and draws heavily on skilled trainees in the mechanical trades. It is a major employer of New

Guineans as trawler masters and seamen.

What the company called “diSi culties with the PNG Government in an attempt to arrange overseas finance”, was another reason given • for the close-down.

About 230 employees were stood down when they collected their pay towards the end of October.

All but eight of the dismissed workers are New Guineans, who have been given one week’s notice.

Most of them live with their fami lies at the company’s base at Napa Napa on the shores of Port Moresby Harbour.

Ten 150-ton trawlers owned by the company are being decommissioned, but their future is not yet known.

A company spokesman said rising wage and fuel costs and a slump in the world price of shrimps—the company’s staple catch—had already contributed to the shut-down.

New industry

for Lautoka

Lautoka will be the South Pacific base of a joint electrical engineering venture involving the big Cable Price Downer group of New Zealand and H. P. Singh (Fiji) Ltd, electrical, automotive and machinery contract ing and sales firm. The new Fiji com pany will be Switchboard Industries Fiji Ltd, the manager of which will be Mr Harry Hoddinott of A. and G. Price Ltd, Auckland, which is part of the CPD group.

A. and G. Price decided to move into Fiji to meet market requirements on the spot after securing a number of contracts, including the supply of electrical equipment to the Suva abattoirs, water and sewerage treat ment plants and the new Yuda Point power station.

Switchboard Industries will operate from a 6,000 sq ft factory near the port. There is adequate room for expansion. An internal training pro gramme will be launched for local employees, but some selected staff will be sent to A. and G. Price in Auckland for advanced training and experience. • Urban co-operative societies in Vila and Santo are increasing their turnovers rapidly, and are passing on some of the benefits in free film shows for members and their families.

The Vila Urban Consumers Co-op Society averages 5A2,000 a day, and its target of |A400,000 for 1974 is likely to be exceeded by 25 per cent.

Layng Co-op Society, Santo, after sales of SA 13,000 in July, expects the 1974 target of $A 100,000 to be ex ceeded by 50 per cent.