NEWSPRINT AND PAPER PULP: VAST PROJECT

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 February 1949, Page 4

NEWSPRINT AND PAPER PULP: VAST PROJECT

(SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT)

WELLINGTON, This Day.

Within the next week or two, the Government is expected to announce the particulars of a vast proposal to produce newsprint and paper pulp in New Zealand. Over the past year or 18 months, inspections have been made by experts from Britain and the United States, and their reports are practically all in the hands of the Government.

The present arrangement is to announce the particulars of the recommendations of these reports, together with the plans of the Government, on about March 1. The “Rust report” has been in the hands of the Government for some months, but the announcements have been delayed until the other experts made their reports. It is understood on good authority that the Government will go ahead with a comprehensive programme of pulp making and the manufacture of newsprint. Allied to this will be a greatly expanded cutting programme of exotic forests in the Kaingarca and neighbouring districts. Estimates of the money involved run into many millions of pounds. One thing which has yet to be decided is the form of body which will administer this new proposal. A public corporation, with representatives of both the State and private industry, has been forecast by Mr G. H. Mackley, M.P. for Wairarapa, and chairman of directors of Whakatane Board Mills Ltd. This forecast seems a very likely one, but it is not thought that the Government will make any announcement on this score just at the moment.