RIGHTS OF PRIVATE INTERESTS IN PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY DISCUSSED

Evening Star, Issue 26185, 21 August 1947, Page 12

RIGHTS OF PRIVATE INTERESTS IN PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY DISCUSSED

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 19. The formation of a public corporation, representative of the interested parties and the public, to run the State’s pulp and paper industry, might have some merit, but its effect on existing enterprises deserved consideration, said Mr G. H. Mackley, M.P., managing director of Whakatane Paper Mills Ltd., to-night. Mr Mackley said that from a national viewpoint it might appear that the Government had some claim to launch its project on behalf of the people, but the question arose whether, from a national viewpoint, the State was better equipped, administratively and otherwise, than was private enterprise to establish and manage such an enterprise. Mr Mackley said he expected that further light might be thrown upon the Government’s intentions, either in the Budget or in the annual report of the State Forest Service. The State certainly owned considerable forest areas in the districts mentioned as a possible site of the .proposed new industry, and with this volume of

basic raw material in its hands the Government seemed to have a good claim to launch the project. The figure of £7,000,000 mentioned in the reports as the cost of the scheme envisaged was one private enterprise would look at with some caution.

Mr Mackley said in some respects the Government scheme seemed to cut across the developments already indicated by Forest Products and those tor which the Whakatane Paper Mills had' a license. Private enterprise, as represented by these companies, had blazed the trail as far as the manufacture of pulp and paper products was concerned, and no Government could fairly do anything to take from private enterprise the just rewards of its efforts. So long as the State showed a full appreciation for the pioneering effort of private enterprise, no one would cavil at its coming into the pulp and paper industry on a fair and equitable basis. Anything in the nature of a “ heavy hand ” or disregard for established industries would be most unfavourably received by the thousands of people interested in the existing concerns. Mr Mackley said that in the present circumstances .the suggestion of a public corporation had possibilities if all parties to the project could be reasonably satisfied as to its outcome. “ Tt is wenerallv conceded by those best able° to judge, particularly overseas experts,’.’ said Mr Mackley, that Neiv Zealand is well placed for the development of the pulp and paper industry. The State’s entrv into some aspects of production to take care of its timber resources should prove advantageous to existing enterprises, provided it keeps to the programme of developing new products, such as newsprint arid chemical plup associated with its lumber activities.”