NEWSPRINT SCARCE AND DEAR

Evening Star, Issue 26027, 15 February 1947, Page 9

NEWSPRINT SCARCE AND DEAR

AUSTRALIA NOW PRODUCING BIG RISE IN COSTS (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Feb. 14. : Australia was now manufacturing 28,000 tons of newsprint annually and with the delivery of more plant would raise her annual output to 70,000 tons, said Mr R. A. G. Henderson, general manager of the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald,’ on his arrival from Sydney today by Tasman flying boat. the Australian newspaper proprietors were now-receiving 95 per cent, of their 1939‘supplies of newsprint, their circulations had grown to gfich an extent that the shortage was still very acute. He estimated that circulations had grown by 50 per cent, since the beginning of the recent war. 'There was a world shortage of newsprint, Mr Henderson said, and it was not affected' by the policy of import selection. The only countries from which they could purchase at the present time were Canada and Newfoundland, and they had to pay £4l a ton. It was impossible to purchase on the Scandinavian or British markets, and they were therefore ■ dependent -upon North American and their own small home production. • Morning papers in Australia were still selling at 2d. but Mr Henderson considered that the _ rise in costs was making the production. of newspapers both difficult and uneconomic. Mr Henderson will attend the annual meeting of the New Zealand section of the Empire Press Union, which will open at Rotorua next Thursday. He. is a director of Reuter’s Agency, whose news service in the'Pacific area was recently re-organised in order to ensure a greater exchange of news between Britain and the Pacific countries.