WHAKATANE PAPER CO.

Grey River Argus, 14 February 1940, Page 12

WHAKATANE PAPER CO.

PRICE INVESTIGATION. WELLINGTON, February 13. The Whakatane Paper Mills application to the Price Investigation Tribunal for permission to increase its prices for the cardboard it manufactures, is being heard to-day. There is a large attendance. Mr. Justice Hunter is presiding. Mr. H. P. Richmond (Auckland) is appearing for the company Mr. N. A. Foden for the Crown, and Mr. W. Perry is representing the users of the products. Mr. Richmond said that New Zealand was the only country in which cardboard was produced that had not granted protection to the industry. Mr. Foden: They said they didn’t want it. “It may be they didn’t,” said Mr. Richmond. He was concerned, however, only with stating the problem as it existed. What he was going to submit to the tribunal must of necessity take the facts as they existed, and deal with them, and not with any of the principal ones, because the tribunal had to deal with a war emergency and to dtecide whether or not the mill was to continue production. In the first place he asked that prices should cover the actual cost of production, and secondly that there should be a sufficient allowance to cover interest on borrowed capital, invested solely in the mill and its necessary adjuncts, such as the branch line of railway and pumping station. The total cost of the mill and adjuncts was £586,000. He said the company had a very large sum invested in 47,000 acres of plantations, but on that it did not ask one penny interest or other charge. The company suggested, practically, that a net return of 5 I per cent, in the way of dividends to shareholders was a perfectly reasonable request. He proceeded to outline what the undertaking meant in New Zealand s business economy, stressing what would have to be found in dollar exchange for importations.