Printers Express Concern About Paper Manufacture

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29153, 14 March 1960, Page 7

Printers Express Concern About Paper Manufacture

Licences to manufacture printings and writings should not be confined to any one New Zealand producer, and imports should not be prohibited, the president of the New Zealand Master Printers' Federation (Mr R. E. Worts, of Wellington) said in his presidential address to the federation’s annual conference at Napier on Saturday.

“We have noted with some concern developments connected with the manufacture of printings and writings in New Zealand,” he said.

‘‘This term covers a very wide range of papers which we are expected to have available to satisfy the varied individual requirements of our customers. “The application by Tasman Pulp and Paper Company, Ltd., asks for the exclusive right to manufacture practically this whole range of fine papers used by our industry,” he said. “Monopoly Proposed”

He said it was proposed that the manufacture of printings and writings in this country should be a monopoly of the Kawerau plant, owned and controlled partly by the State and partly by private enterprise. Production at the moment was confined to newsprint and the present plant was incapable of producing any class of fine papers.

“Yet Tasman is asking for the sole right, at some unknown date, to produce on some type of unknown plant, some 15 classes of fine papers,” Mr Worts said. “Up to the present we have had little cause for complaint, but we are most seriously concerned as to the future.

“In particular, we are concerned •'bout two aspects: first, that local manufacture is in the hands of only one concern; second, that for the purpose of making this part of Kawerau’s production an economic proposition, severe control will be imposed on imports of such paper from our overseas sources of supply. “We strongly protest against this monopoly privilege. We point out that, in the recent past, the Government itself has had much to say about the evils of monopolies and in fact has passed special legislation to deal with the restrictive practices, including monopoly privileges,” he said. Effect on Quality Mr Worts said experience had amply demonstrated that, in the absence of competition, there was a tendency for the supplier to produce an inferior article at a price higher than was economically justified. “We in the printing industry are not unaware of instances of

this. Indeed, the mere fact that an assured market exists must have the tendency to permit slackness on the part of the supplier. “While we do not condemn the establishment of the new industry at Kawerau, and in fact we welcome it, it is our belief that licences to manufacture printings and writings should not be confined to any one New Zealand producer and imports should not be prohibited,” Mr Worts added. He said it would be impossible for Kawerau to produce more than a small part of the wide range of quantities and substances that are normally used in the printing industry. It would be quite uneconomic for the plant to produce a full range and it had never been suggested that would be attempted, Mr Worts said.

“What is troubling us is that we might be expected to limit our requirements of grades and qualities of printings and writings, and so to make do with a higher proportion of the range available from Kawerau which would probably be of lower grades. “Such a situation would be entirely unacceptable to the printing industry and we propose to make the strongest representations to the Government of the day to prevent such happenings,” he added.