WHAKATANE MILL

Grey River Argus, 15 March 1940, Page 2

WHAKATANE MILL

Price of Output QUESTION OF N.z. MARKET capacity. WELLINGTON, March 14. At the request of Mr H. P. Richtori, counsel for Whakatane Paper Mills, Company, the Price Fixi g bunaff under the presidency Justice Hunter, sat again to-day to hear further submissions by counsel. Mr Richmond said that the P° in which he wished to submit was that the tribunal, in its interim finding, took the mill’s estimated output or twelve thousand five hundred tons to be the same as the prospective sales. Counsel contended that the mill’s possible annual output and prospective sale of board output depended on the type of board made, and an output of 12 500 tons could not be attained in respect of products required by the New Zealand market. The New Zealand market’s requirements were only about nine thousand tons, and there was no sale for an output above that figure. Dr. N. A. Foden, who appeared for the Crown, said that there was never any distinction made between the tonnage output and the prospective sales. It was, he said, a deliberate attempt to get the tribunal to reverse its decision. Mr Richmond said that, whatever

the tribunal had understood by the figure twelve thousand tons, he a always meant what the mill could produce as the maximum output, and not what it could sell. His Honour: Well, the Tribunal accepted your own figures. What is it you suggest we should do? Mr Richmond said that the company could not see a demand in New Zealand for more than nine thousand tons. If the findings of the Tribunal were upheld and costs were fixed on the supposition that 12,500 tons could be sold a debacle would result. His Honour: What tonnage do you say that the Tribunal should have taken instead of 12,500 tons? Mr Richmond: We would have preferred you to work upon the other basis of taking the unit costs.