N.Z. NEWSPRINT SUPPLIES

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26393, 11 April 1951, Page 7

N.Z. NEWSPRINT SUPPLIES

REPLY TO MR HORTON (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, April 10. “The president of the New Zealand Newspaper Proprietors’ Association (Mr R. D. Horton) is surely rather harsh in the suggestion that British newspapers are trying to ‘filch a few tons’ of newsprint from New Zealand by causing a breach of the supply contracts, which the New Zealand press has with British mills, ’* said Mr F. P. Bishop, of the Newsprint Supply Company, Limited, in a letter to “The rimes." Mr Bishop said: “Our attitude on these export contracts has been made abundantly clear. We have never objected at all to the continuance of exports ufider long-term contractu With the countries of the Commonwealth or to sharing fairly with them the resources available to us. AU that we objected to was the sudden decision by the Government to increase these exports far above the pre-war level tor the benefit of those, who though they have difficult problems of their own, are relatively much tetter off than the newspapers in this country We can, and do. sympathise with the difficulties of the New Zealand press, but according to my latest information, the New Zealand papers are able to publish 12 pages a day and weeklies as many as 26. , “Mr Horton refers to the consumption of newsprint per capita. In New Zealand it fell from the pre-war level of 20.8 kilograms to 13.8 kilograms In 1949. Iq (his country the comparable fall was from 26.1 to 11.4 kilograms. Thus, while doing all we can to help our friends, we cannot overlook the still more difficult position of our own press. The present outlook is grim, but we are doing everything possible to increase the total supply of newsprint. and I hope in time these efforts will bear fruit for the benefit not only of th s country, but the whole Commonwealth.”