(white) middleman

Briefly

• Sir Maori Kiki has been appointed a director of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (PNG) Limited. He will sit on the bank’s board with Mr E. D.

Cleland, PNG businessman, Mr M. Brunckhorst and Mr T. M. Williamson, managing director and general man ager-branch banking, re spectively, of ANZ’s Melbourne-based parent company; and Mr T. A.

Wightman, the local bank’s chief manager. Sir Maori, ex- PNG deputy prime minister, has held several ministerial portfolios, including foreign affairs and overseas trade. He is president of the Port Mores by Council of Trade Unions and chairman of the National Shipping Corporation and of New Guinea Motors Pty Ltd. • Mr A. Matoto, 34, for merly Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Finance in Tonga, has been promoted to

the newly-created position of

Secretary for Finance. The promotion makes Mr Matoto the permanent head of the Ministry. Previously, Mr S.

Jones, the Accountant- General, was the departmen tal head. Mr Matoto is one of a small group of young, edu cated Tongans who have been elevated to senior positions. • Sir John Guise, ex PNG Governor-General and now a

prominent parliamentarian,

Cutting out the

(white) middleman

Whites and Asians are to be banned from February from buying unprocessed cocoa beans in parts of Papua New Guinea unless they have become naturalised citizens.

The PNG Cocoa Industry Board decided on the ban following complaints that too many non-nationals are in volved in middle-man profit making.

The areas where the ban will apply are New Ireland and West New Britain two of the major cocoa-growing regions of PNG.

has called on the government to refuse further fishing survey permits to foreign companies. “It is common knowledge,” he said, “that these fishing survey permits are being abused by foreign fishermen, who only use this type of permit as a cover when in fact they ship away thou sands of tonnes of fish to their home ports through mother ships which collect this frozen fish outside sea boundaries.”

K6OO 000, are Coral Sea En terprises Pty Ltd of Australia and a Japanese company. Sir John complained that the peo ple of Milne Bay, whom he represents in parliament, have not been consulted over the project. • The Atzira Rural Co-op erative has accused Markham Valley peanut growers of sell ing their peanuts to foreign owned companies rather than to the co-operative. The co operative said one company, Sum Sum Peanuts, was using

dirty tactics to persuade

growers to sell to them. The farmers’ answer was that they had not been given a fair deal by the co-operative which was paying only 7t per kg for their peanuts. The foreign com panies paid 30t per kg. • The Fiji Can Co Ltd has capacity to produce more than one million cans of fish a year in its new $1.5 million factory at Levuka. In the first year production is expected to be about 400 000 cans. The en terprise is a joint venture be tween the Fiji Government and the Toyo Fika Can Co Ltd, of Japan. • A new joint venture tim ber project between the Papua New Guinea Government and! a Japanese company is the Gogol Reforestation Co in Madang Province, where holdings are being replanted

in pulpwood. The Japanese

company, Jant, has 51% equi ty in the venture and PNG holds the remainder. It wil! take about six years to estab lish the plantation and 14 years before it comes intc bearing. • New Zealand will be the market for the production from a new orange growing and processing enterprise in Fiji’s Vanua Levu. Initially there will be more than 100 ha planted in citrus at Batirii

Later the area of land under citrus production will be doubled. The $6OO 000 ven ture has attracted an invest ment from the Com monwealth Development Corporation. Others in the venture are the Fiji National Marketing Authority, the Stinson-Pearce group, and Oasis Ltd, of New Zealand. • Blue Lagoon Cruises Ltd, of Fiji, is paying shareholders a 15% dividend, and is making a bonus share issue of l-for-2 after a good financial year to May 31, 1 97 7. The profit was $212 792, compared with $1 17 223 in the previous financial year. The company has placed an order for a fourth vessel for Yasawa cruises, from Lautoka. • Samoa Coconut Products Ltd will operate a copra crushing mill to be built in Western Samoa. Apart from extracting oil the mill will ilso process the offal into copra meal in pellet form. The government is borrowing SWS2.S million to establish ;he mill. • Papua New Guinea’s Pri

mary Industry Minister, Mr

fulius Chan, nas appealed to he public to “buy local” and ‘shut its ears” to commercial adio advertising, which was naking the job of promoting ocal products much more lifficult. • Convenience foods have cached Western Samoa in the orm of Southern Fried :hicken, in a take-away outlet n Apia. Chicken and chips old will be no different from hose sold in New Zealand.

Ml the machinery, chicken, jhips and fish will be sent fqm NZ to Apia. The food vill be prepared according to ecipes used in NZ. • Fiji’s sugar output for [977 was one of the “sweetest Jver”, and would earn about 594 million, according to the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Charles Walker. He told the louse of Representatives the i 977 sugar output was about 154,000 tonnes, the highest •ince the 355,000 tonnes of [970. It was the second most valuable crop ever produced. • Pacific Navigation of onga has included Norfolk sland on its regular service

from Sydney and Brisbane to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. The company initially offered freight rates 16% lower than those of Compagnie des Chargeurs Caledoniens which runs a Sydney-Lord Howe- Norfolk Island-New Hebrides service. Pacific Navigation’s charge for general cargo is $94 for 1 000 kg and $B5 a cubic metre. Charges for acids, gas in cylinders, dangerous and reefer cargo are higher. • The Fiji Government has taken delivery of two small ships, built at the government shipyard, Walu Bay, Suva.

They are the Bulikula, 20 m, which will be used to explore for mineral resources, and the 17.8 m Nasi Yalodina (Dedi cated Nurse), which will be used in health services. Each vessel, which cost more than $5OO 000, has special equip ment for its chosen task. The Nasi Yalodina was funded by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities. • Things are looking up for Air Pacific. After five years of losses totalling $2 170 380, the airline expects to make a profit of about $250 000 in the current financial year, which ends on March 31. This result has been achieved in spite of a reduction of 500 in the work force. In fact, with

fewer employees, productivity

has risen, according to chair man Don Aidney. In the last financial year Air Pacific in curred a loss of $1 060 231, which was cut to $297 188 after selling some aircraft and making foreign exchange gains on loan repayments. • Mr G. S. Fallscheer, 44, has been appointed engineer ing department manager for Air Niugini, replacing Mr C.

Yates, who has returned to Australia. Israel-born Mr Fallscheer is no stranger to Papua New Guinea, having been maintenance supervisor for TAA at Lae in 1960-64. • Timber from Vanua Levu, in Fiji, is being ex ported to the United States.

The first shipment of 45 000 super ft of dakua, was from Savusavu on the south coast of the island, and went to Seat tle. Mr Max Olsson, general manager of Brown and Robb in Fiji, expects the market to increase and earn foreign ex change for Fiji.