Pangu Party sheds shares

Pangu, Prime Minister Michael Somare’s party in Papua New Guinea, is trying to get rid of a shareholding of half a million dollars which embarrasses the party.

Until recently the motor trading and air conditioning businesses covered by the shares—including the Mazda car franchise—belonged to PNG Associated Industries listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange.

A takeover deal was organised to give half-ownership to the Pangu Party and half to the Opposition party in parliament, the United Party.

The novel scheme to provide party funds was believed to contain an in built check and balance because opposing parties were involved and because the directors would be party leaders open to scrutiny in parlia ment. But, when the takeover was half completed, there was a split over the issue between Pangu’s parlia mentary wing and its national execu tive.

The national executive claimed it hadn’t been consulted, and said that involvement in the sensitive motor trade conflicted with party doctrine.

The national executive won the argument, and Mr Somare agreed to drop Pangu’s involvement in the deal.

In the meantime, legal agreements already negotiated have forced Pangu to take up its half-share in the suc

cessful takeover which is worth a total of just over $1 million.

But a party spokesman said: “We are taking immediate steps to divest ourselves of the shares, but it takes some time because of the legal re quirements”.

There will be no money for Pangu in any transfer arrangement which it is able to negotiate. The only pay out by either party so far has been a nominal seven dollars or so, be cause holding company vendors who took over from the public company ownership had planned to fully fin ance the deal.

The most likely outcome is that the Pangu shareholding will be trans ferred to another group of approved Papua New Guinea nationals, and under the same financing agreement.

Inflation eats into

Carpenter's profits

Profits from W. R. Carpenter’s trading activities in the South Pacific 1974-75 were only marginally up on the previous year, in spite of a sig nificant jump in turnover, particu larly in Papua New Guinea. The company turned in a net profit of $8.27 million, compared with $8.2 million in 1973-74. The final divi dend is 5c a share. The payout for the year is 10c a share.

Group turnover in PNG increased

by almost 24 per cent to K4B million.

Price inflation contributed to a gain in the merchandising and automotive divisions. The profit level in PNG was only 1.9 per cent higher than in 1973-74.

Copra production increased by 12i per cent, compared with 1973-74, but the price was 30 per cent lower. The weather was less suitable for cocoa and output fell by 4i per cent. How ever, that was more than offset by a rise of 31 per cent (average) in cocoa prices.

W. R. Carpenter (South Pacific) Ltd, with headquarters in Fiji, and which also operates in Western Samoa and Tonga, earned a profit of $2,852,000, which was six per cent down on the previous year. A significant factor in the fall in profit was $718,000 in losses on shipments of coconut products, following the downturn in world copra and coconut oil prices.

The South Pacific company lifted turnover from $66 million in 1973- 74 to $7B million. The increase was caused mainly by inflation, and to increases in the cost of imported goods.

Some details of turnover were, with percentage rise in brackets: General merchandise, $4O million (17.5 per cent); automotive, $l7 million (13.1 per cent); industrial, $7 million (22 per cent); shipping, $2.5 million (20 per cent).

The group spent $2B million on local purchases, compared with $18.5 million in 1973-74; more than $lO million went to copra producers.

Salaries and wages totalled $8.5 million (up 31 per cent); taxes and duties accounted for $8 million.

Group employment dropped by 207 to 3,651, mainly because of the re cession in the building industry.

Niueans milk a

mechanical cow

A “mechanical cow” is now provid ing Niue Island’s population of 3,500 with fresh milk daily.

The $20,000 beast—a conglomera tion of stainless steel pipes, tanks and filters—is housed in the island’s De velopment Board factory at Fonua kula.

Paid for by the NZ Government and designed by the NZ Dairy Re search Institute, Niue’s recombined milk plant has taken over production formerly obtained from a small dairy herd.

According to the board’s factory manager, Mr David Pooch of New Zealand, the plant is believed to be the first of its kind in the South Pacific. He said there were similar plants built with foreign aid in South- East Asia.

After initial mixing and stirring, with the flick of a switch the “mechanical cow” can churn out 60 gallons of milk an hour.

The process is relatively simple.

Skimmed milk, butter fat and butter milk powder—provided by the NZ Dairy Board in Wellington—are mixed in warm water then passed through an in-line filter. The liquid then flows across a series of plates heated by steam and is then quickly cooled, killing any harmful bacteria.

The end result: Pasteurised milk, which many claim tastes better than “the real thing”.

Mr Pooch says that about 50 gallons a day is supplied to all schools on the island and bulk deliveries are made to local traders.

“The Board is investigating the flavouring of milk and the possi bilities of packaging the product,” he added.

Fishing trials

in Tahiti

A fishing boat left Sydney in late November for Tahiti where it will be used in live-bait fishing trials for bonito.

The vessel is the ex-Torres Strait, renamed the Tainui and has been bought for about $A200,000 by the Territory of French Polynesia in co-operation with the National Oceanographic Research Centre

(Cnexo).

With storage capacity for up to 40 tonnes of bonito and four separate tanks to hold live bait, the Tainui would be capable of catching up to 400 tonnes of bonito a year.

Some 18 to 24 months survey work in Polynesian waters is planned to help decide how commercial fisheries could operate. The bonito catch would be tinned in Tahiti or exported through US companies already represented in Tahiti.

Fiji cement

had no easy year

Fiji Industries Ltd, cement manu facturer, did not have an easy year to June 30, 1975. The chairman, Mr R. A. Dickson, in his annual address to shareholders pinpointed a number of problem areas, most of which could be traced back to in flation. On top of the problems of 1974-75, the profits for the first three months of the current financial year were about 50 per cent below the corresponding three months of 1974.

Mr Dickson said the company was finding it difficult to maintain sales to export markets. The government might well have common ground with the company to gain by provid ing export incentives. Remission of

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duty paid on imported supplies used to make cement for export was one area worthy of consideration.

Local sales were affected by the downturn in the building industry.

That situation showed no sign of improvement at present.

In the long-term, the likelihood of Fiji constructing its own hydro electric power system would assist the company, and, of course, the country.

The profit, after tax, of $168,758 (last year $181,391) included a gain of $38,875 from a “material currency realignment” on the repayment amount of an overseas loan.

Australia might

lose a market

The future of Australian exports to New Caledonia is being threatened by rising costs in the port of Sydney which is prompting the Caledonians to consider importing more from New Zealand or from France.

The problem was highlighted by a November article in a Noumea daily newspaper which reported the growing concern of a Noumea ship ping company trading through Syd ney, Commenting on repeated work stoppages and increasing handling charges in Sydney harbour, a com pany spokesman warned that if the current anarchy were not overcome, it would be impossible to continue trade.

New Zealand would then appear a more suitable source of supply for the many products, especially foodstuffs, which New Caledonia is obliged to import. Even France could be in a better position to sup ply the island, since the Messageries Maritimes has acquired roll on-roll off ships with considerable space for refrigerated cargo.

US navy war

relics demolished

Demolition teams have removed US navy buildings at Anse Vata beach in Noumea which had been used since the war by the French scientific research institute, ORSTOM.

The US Navy built these quarters in 1942 as a hospital and certain sections have remained in medical use, as part of the French Poly clinique private hospital. After all these years of service, even the dis mantled buildings used by ORSTOM are not going to be useless as the sheet metal walls will be used as tool sheds on other construction jobs.

As for the French scientists at ORSTOM, they have now moved into fine new headquarters, which include a convention hall intended

to accommodate congresses for Paci fic researchers, particularly in the fields of botany and oceonography.

JAL plans 14 Fiji

charter flights

The Fiji tourist industry will get a much needed shot in the arm in February-March when Japan Air Lines makes 14 charter flights carry ing Japanese who will spend five days in Fiji. There will be a DCS flight from Japan every four days.

The charters are for affinity groups. The venture is in the nature of a pilot project and should it be

successful it could lead to a perma nent air link between the two coun tries. Last year it was suggested there could be a big influx of Japanese to the South Pacific. • Tonga is making an attempt to attract more Japanese tourists in 1976. Mr Albin Johansson, manager of the International Dateline Hotel, and Mr Mate Lemoto, manager of Teta Tours, recently went to Japan on a promotion visit sponsored by Air Pacific and UTA. They spoke to representatives of travel agencies, and screened a film, Tonga Royal, for their benefit. Mr Johansson said the response was promising.