Burns Philp quits Niue

Trade Winds

Nauru House crumbles NAURU House, the 53-level tower built with phosphate royalties in Melbourne as an investment for the island’s future, is

having serious structural problems.

According to newspaper reports, con crete chunks the size of bricks have been found on the building’s plaza area and scaffolding was erected to protect pedes trians from falling debris. Experts say the cause of the problem is spalling, where the concrete is physically knocked off the edge as the steel enforcement corrodes and expands.

The building, erected as part of

Nauru’s plans to invest phosphate royal

ties against the day when the deposits were exhausted, returns about SAI2 mil lion a year in rents.

Gaol threat for stamp dealer A FORMER chairman of Stanley Gib bons faces trial over the alleged unau thorised production of stamps for Tuva lu. Clive Feigenbaum was ordered by the British High Court to hand over stocks of Tuvalu stamps after the island’s gov ernment claimed he was printing them without any legal authority. The Tuvalu Attorney-General, David Ballantyne, will now press for a prison sentence on the claim that Feigenbaum defied a court order banning him from producing stamps.

Feigenbaum’s solicitor said his client denied any wrongdoing and had no in volvement in stamp production.

Burns Philp quits Niue

BURNS Philp (South Sea) Ltd has sold its commercial operation in Niue to a local company, Kinggurra Nominees Pty Ltd. The sale was for an undisclosed sum. The sale reflects the changing face of the old south seas trading company as Burns Philp now concentrates on de veloping as an international food and

fermentation operation.

NZ dependent on farming

GOVERNMENT policies in New Zea land, aimed at lessening dependence on agricultural exports, had actually re sulted in the country being more reliant on farmers than ever, according to the director of the New Zealand Meat and Wool Boards’ economic service, Neil Taylor. He said farm exports now made up 65 per cent of the nation’s total sales abroad the highest level for many years. But he voiced concern that New Zealand’s severe economic recession had resulted in rapid disinvestment in farm ing, with capital expenditure now run ning at only a third the level of the 1984 figure.

Solomons to keep postal service SOLOMON Islands Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Ben Gale, has announced that earlier plans to privatise the nation’s postal service have been dropped, with the government deciding to retain control. The minister said the government was looking at ways to im prove the service, including the installa tion of more private boxes in Honiara and an express mail service.

PNG gold edge for nationals PAPUA New Guinea Deputy Minister, Akoka Doi, is leading a campaign within the government to restrict alluvial gold mining to nationals, with foreign com panies able to seek licences only in part nership with PNG citizens. Doi has asked the Bank of Papua New Guinea to liber alise procedures for the issuing of gold export licences on the grounds that the present regulations make it hard for citizens to become involved in the gold industry.

Corruption claim in Pago

A FORMER acting director of the Port of Pago Pago has claimed it was losing up to SUSI million a year due to corrup tion and inefficiency. Leroy Ledoux, who recently failed to get Senate con firmation as port director, is staying on as a special assistant to the new acting director, Sione Talamaivoa.

He cited illegally stored containers, payment of less than full fees to the port

authority, and ship supply companies

operating on port property without li cences as some of the causes of revenue shortfalls. He alleged some fees paid had not found their way into the port’s re venue.

Firm takes Tonga air stake AN American company is to become a joint shareholder with the Tongan Gov ernment in Friendly Island Airways, with

Tonga-Guam flights being considered.

In announcing the move, King Taufa’ahau Tupou declined to disclose the U.S. firm’s name but said the com pany would finance a 50-seater Convair aircraft for the Fua’amotu-Ha’apai- Vava’u Pago Pago service. A leased DC-8 jet could link Tonga with Fiji and Guam.

The King also announced the govern ment planned to buy land in Auckland.

One property would be used for a gov ernment warehouse handling the trans

shipping of Tongan goods exported to

New Zealand and as an assembly point for goods bound for Tonga. The other tract, of five acres, will be used to raise sheep, pigs and poultry for export to

Tonga.

Lan Chile shares sought IN a move which has implications for South Pacific aviation, Air New Zealand is trying to buy a 25 per cent stake in Lan Chile. The Chilean government is planning to privatise its national domes tic and international carrier.

Lan Chile flies twice weekly between Tahiti and Santiago, using a Boeing 707 aircraft. Air New Zealand sees such a link as making possible growth in Latin American tourists visiting the South Paci fic as well as increasing the profit poten tial for itself.

Such a move (the Chilean government is expected to announce the successful bidders by the end of August) would be another step in the dominance of the South Pacific by a few large airlines, especially now that Qantas has a substan tial holding of the New Zealand carrier.

This dominance has made it difficult for small regional carriers to break into the lucrative long-haul routes between major

population centres.

Fiji timber boost FIJI Forest Industries, a joint venture between an Australian company and Fi jian landowners, has recently signed con tracts for a major expansion programme, including a sawmill, new kilns and a 23 km access road. The total cost of the expansion plan is about SUSIO million.

The investment is being made to allow an increase of exports by about $2O mil lion a year.

Growers hit by coffee plunge PAPUA New Guinea coffee growers are now receiving the lowest payments on record, a development which has been blamed on the fall in world prices since the collapse of International Coffee Organisation talks. The growers are urging the PNG Coffee Industry Board to raise bounty payments, and to force exporters to remit a greater share of ex port prices to them.

Meanwhile, Indonesia is attempting to increase its share of the world coffee market during the suspension of the world export quotas. Trade Minister Arfin Siregar has been reported as saying Indonesia would exploit the un regulated market and export as much coffee as it could grow under its low-cost production system. The country ex ported 160,000 tonnes last year.

Tonga mission a success FIJI Trade and Investment Board chair man Professor Asesela Ravuvu has de clared a recent trade mission to Tonga a success, with sales expected of $F 180,000 for Fiji goods. He said the mission was overwhelmed by the response from the Tongan business community and several members were planning follow-up visits.

Stamp promotion urged

A MEETING of island stamp-issuing na tions held recently in Suva has identified promotion as being a major problem fac ing the industry, and through the South Pacific Forum Secretariat the countries will seek out new markets, especially in Asia. Represented at the meeting were Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Federated States of Micronesia, Cook Islands, Kiri bati, Western Samoa, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Niue.

Most countries in the region have been experiencing a fall-off in stamp sales, partly due to a general world-wide de cline in the hobby and to what many commentators have called excessive stamp production, with Tuvalu, the Cook Islands and Solomon Islands hav ing come under criticism from philatel ists.

Henry defends tax haven COOK Islands Prime Minister Geoffrey Henry has stood by his country’s tax minimisation status, telling the recent South Pacific Forum meeting in Kiribati that he regarded it as a legitimate opera tion. Henry indicated he had no qualms about the Cook Island laws, saying that the publicity about Alan Bond’s use of the country to cut corporate tax in Au stralia had made the Cook Islands a household name in Australia.

Savings and loan cuts THE troubled PSA Savings and Loans Society is to close all its regional bran ches in Papua New Guinea and replace them with agencies in an effort to cut costs after losses last year of K 1.25 mil lion. Some employees would lose their jobs, others would be re-located, said caretaker board chairman Nick Bokas.

Solomons tag the tuna WITH the help of the South Pacific Commission, the Solomon Islands Fisheries Division is involved in a tuna ta gg' n g programme to establish whether pole-and-line fishing and purse seining can be carried out simultaneously in the country’s 200-mile economic zone. The study will show the growth rate and mortality rate of tuna, and whether more than the present 60 pole-and-line vessels and three purse seiners which are licensed for Solomn waters can be allowed to work the zone.

Air Niugini seeks new Airbus AIR Niugini is seeking permission from the government in Port Moresby to ac quire a second A-310 Airbus, as well as another F-28 jet. The national carrier took delivery of its first Airbus in mid- March. The airline has found the intro duction of cheap internal air fares put the existing fleet under pressure and in ternal services were now experiencing frequent delays, it was reported.

UTA strike in Papeete A WEEK-LONG strike of UTA pilots and its local subsidiary Aeromaritime- French badly hit the people of Tahiti in early July. It is the latest in an on-going industrial dispute affecting the interna tional airline’s air crew. UTA has been reducing its losses in the Pacific by cut ting one of the four weekly Los Angeles-

Papeete flights, and handing over its

Sydney-Noumea service to Air Caledonie International.

Tonga joins fish pact

TONGA has joined other island coun tries in signing the fishing treaty with the United States, thus becoming eligible for funding of about SUS 100,000 a year.

Tonga’s accession, signed by Labour, Commerce and Industries Minister Baron Vaea, means that American purse seine vessels may fish in Tongan waters.

In return Tonga will receive a royalty for four years plus technical and econo mic assistance.