NEW GUINEA PLANTATIONS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 8 April 1926, Page 7

NEW GUINEA PLANTATIONS.

TENDERS FOR PURCHASE. BRITISH AND GERMAN RIVALRY By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received April 7, 8.5 p.ih.) LONDON, April 7. “The Financial .Times” understands that a tender of £2,000,000 has been made to the Commonwealth Government, on behalf of an influential syndicate, comprising important .shipping and financial interests,, for the British New Guinea plantations, expropriated from the enemy, in war time, also a tender of £2,150,000 from 1 another, source, which is , believed . to- he acting on behalf of a German group. “The Financial Times” adds that should the properties be acquired by the British syndicate the flotation of a public company is likely to follow: in which case, an undertaking -will be a long way the largest plantation proposition of the kind ever presented, for public support:

Tho biggest existing company of a similar nature is the Anglo-Dutch plantations of Java, owning 212,024 acres, of which 68,878 are under cultivation. The writer gives the total area of the New Guinea properties as 480,000 acres, of which the area under cultivation is unknown, but it was estimated in 1920 that the aggregate value of the properties amounted to about £4,000,000.