HEARST SCORES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 22, 26 January 1929, Page 17

HEARST SCORES

NEWSPRINT EXCESS

TEN POUNDS A TON DEAL

CANADA TAKES NOTE

At a time when New- Zealand and Australia are considering their possible entry ijito the wood pulp industry, it is worth noting that, for, the present at any rate, Canada' is considered to be over-producing ncwsjiriut. Writes a | Toronto correspondent:' ■ ' Tho Canadian 1 paper ■'manufacturing industry ■is in a disturbed ■ condition. Excessive production,- resulting from a too-rapid multiplication-of' pulp ■ and paper mills,: hasi led to excessive competition and wasteful. ',' cutting "of prices. The Ilearst Prpss of,the; United States brought the crisis to a head when it procured, a three years' , contract .through the International Paper' Company for all the newsprint which it requires at 50 dollars (£10) a .ton... The result is that many mills.in Ontario, Quebec, and other, provinces, have been running on a 50 per cent, or GO-per cent, capacity. ,' Many, agricultural settlers- in the backwoods of Ontario and Quebec have, lost the market for pulpwoodj/uponwhich they largely depended for a living while they cleared their, lands for farming purposes; . More serious is. the danger.incurred by. Caiiada's second largest industry .and by tho. 600,000,000 Idollars (£120,000,000) invested in.that industry. PRODUCTION GOVERNABLE BY STATE. The provincial Governments have doubtless bceiuto.-blamc in encouraging the establishment of too many mills.and in making' too extensive grants of lands.for their use.','At'tiie present rate pf consumption Canada's : woodpulp forests will lie exhausted in. a few years. One essential reform is govern-' mental insistence on a more economical use of the forests alienated. Every mill should bo compelled to cut only the larger trees on its land. This policy, will allow the smaller trees to grow to their full size. If such a courso be followed tho forests .will yield, a perpetual annual harvest instead of being destroyed within two decades. To this end it may. be possible to revise the wasteful contract entered into :by one company with the Hearst Press,,a contract which tends to set a price for all Canadian paper. ;...':',•*';.'.- „.:■.:. ■ Once, they." were seized-..of.the! situation the Premiers.of; Ontario and Quebec joined hands with' a- view -to bringing order -out', of chaos. In Ontario the Premier (Mr.'Ferguson)'issued an ultimatum to the companies, which,stated: —"Tho Government finds it n'oeessary to direct your attention . to the, factthat your contract contains a number^ ,of important covenants} that many of the companies are in arrears and de.fault has occurred with ..respect, to a number of the conditions and obligations provided in the contracts.' Unless the people interested.in the operation of this, industry . take some immediate stop to put the "industry on a more satisfactory basis and i improve tile present situation, the Government will be compelled to givo serious and immediate consideration to what action it should.take to protect the interests of this, province, its. Investors,, its settlers, its wage-earners, -,iiid . its people generally.", , : - , ; , AGREEMENT TO. REDUCE PRODUCTION. .As a consequence of; this - .-communication,, and of a -similar.--.ultimatum !issued; by the .Premier > of. Quebec, -leading paper-makers met. the two Premiers with a plan to stabilise the industry by rationing their butpuf. The opinion of the conference was in the main' that newsprints should''be-"- sold at a fixed price of 55 dollars (£.11) or 57 "dollars (£ll 10s) a ton. The manufacturers seem to have agreed, to.liniit their production to 80 per;cent, of- their! capacity. If this plan be carried out the result" will be that some of the. mills which have been' producing considerably less than 80 per cent., of .their capacity, -will increase-their production, while other mills that have been' running. practically at. capacity -will have to relinquish- .'.a. I.proportion :' of their market: 'In order to ensure the protection of the-pulp-wood'forests from destruction there may have to be a radical curtailment of the export of pulpwood to mills in the "United States, but such a curtailment would- involve interna-' tional problems not easy of solution.

Some 2500 new'motor-cars are'delivered to owners every week for, the-whole country in Britain, about one-fifth- of these going to London. . ■ ....