PRICE WAR ?

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 229, 27 September 1930, Page 9

PRICE WAR ?

Alleged Breach of Newsprint Agreement. CANADIAN OFFICIAL RESIGNS. NEW YORK, September 26. Colonel John Price, president of Price Brothers and Company, one of the large Canadian firms of newsprint manufacturers, has resigned the chairmanship of the Newsprint Institute of Canada. He alleges that certain members, whom he does not identify, have failed to live up to the rules of that organisation. It is intimated that Colo::el Price's resignation was prompted by the fact that although the institute agreed to an increase of £1 a ton in 1931, they were virtually making readjustments through the sale of newsprint stock to publishers. It is believed in some quarters that the resignation of Colonel Price presages a price war in the newsprint i\ Jus try.

A cablegram from New York on December 12 stated: A sharp controversy between Canadian newsprint manufacturers and United States newspapers has arisen over the former's announced intention to raise the price of newsprint from £11 to £12 per ton for the three-year contract period beginning in 1931. _ Publishers who claim that over-capitali-ation and previous over-production am inefficiency are behind the Canadian action also say that since the Dominion controls 52 per cent of the North American newsprint, it amounts to a "hold up."