THE PAPER SHORTAGE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1712, 31 December 1919, Page 6

THE PAPER SHORTAGE.

PRICES RISEN FOURFOLD. QUESTION OF HIGHER RATES. VT wo thousand small papers are threatened with extinction in the United States because they cannot obtain paper supplies, ll the whole world were surveyed the number would probably be not two thousand, bat twenty thousand. For the casualties during; the past twelve mouths have been enormous, and they have been entirely duo to a paper famine which has spread throughout the whole world. Thai I herb should have been uic-h a. wholesale closing-down ot papers in America ik demonstration of the acuteness of the shortage, because America is, easily the largest paper manufacturing country.

During the war there was a very severe shrinkage ot supplies., When hundreds of thousands of young men were, called to the colours in Canada and the Lhitcd States the timber cutters were thinned out of the f orests, and the mills could not obtain their normal supplies of raw materials. In Great Britain, pulp imported from America or Scandinavia is converted into paper, the mills weie deprived of large parts of the stall, and were unable to work full time because they had to desist at night time owing to Zeppelin raids. In Scandinavia the paper mills wen- stowed down almost to inactivity because the submarine campaign prevented coal reaching them frOm Wales. The Finnish forests were entirely cut olf from the rest of the nations, while the Red and White Annies'contended for .supremacy. German mills wer® not able to satisfy local requirements, and France had to depend upon Iho Crated States. / SHORT STORE, LONG PRICE.

All those conditions made in the one directi<a: - -for a large'curtailment of prodint inn and a- consequent heavy advance in price. Australia felt, the pinch as quickly and as sharply as any other country. Site had previously been able to procure supplies it will from England or Scandinavia, or the United States or Canada, or even Japan, lint the submarine menace very swiftly ■evered communication with the markets o‘ the old world, and she was gradually forced lo fall bade upon Canada, with its enormous paper-making potentialities. Concurrently freights rose enormously in all the seven seas, and in tin- Pacific, in sympathy with .those of the Atlantic, so that Australian paper supplies were loaded with shortage, ■Ttlvanee ob prices, and tremendous freights.

lint newspaper proprietqrs. by dint of ceaseless ilit.’i'iiuify, managed to make ends fleet, and searched for the silver lining which was Ie arrive will; the singing of the armistice, it was fondly hoped that with die end of tiie war labour would return to he forests in normal mtmbcrs, and freights '.voidd lie reduced. As a matter of fact, either of these liopes has l>oen realised, i here are fewer woodsmen practising their ‘ailing in Canada and the United States, uii! the high cost of living has sent i p •vages like a sky-rocket', thus eonijiidling the nilis to increase their j trices oven above war rates, and so far from there having been i. welcome break- in freight rates tliev have hard. Ned to a figure which is five times that ■tiling before the war.

“TAKING THE KNOCK.” _ It has not been necessary for the Amotean mills to exploit, (he situation unfairly. It is ati established fact that there is a pronounced diminution in paper production, while the reconstruction period has brought t demand for news which has necessitated lie leading journals of public opinion in England and America, and in Erance, and ] n South America, increasing their size. ■mi that the shortage lias been aggravated *.V a constant increase of demand, until onV-t-.s have risen so high that two thousand gapers in America are not able to pay thenway, and must suspend operations. Here in Australia (says the Sydney Sun ){ December _l7) the position lias been urthcr intensified by maritime troubles, ibe last strike which caused stagnation on ‘he water!rout for three months held up itearncrs. and sailing ships which were scheduled to load in Canada, and be back n Australia long ago. Instead of this hoy spent tln-eo months in idleness. Dnrug the war ic was impossible for any towspapor to accumulate large stocks, and he scant reserves which were held were laten up while tho ships were lying idle n Australian ports, .so that yll the metrololitan papers of Australia have been, and ire, living on hand-to-mouth conditions. Ibis very week, for instance, grjrn tragedy has stalked into tiie otlic-o of a daily paper u Australia which has put up the plucki■st possible tight against adverse circumstances. ' It bad sullicient paper on board i ship scheduled to reach it before its store vas swept bare. But tho marine engineers have gone out, and the ship is am-h----ired in tile stream and the paper cannot/ ho lifted from it; and there is no place Tom which other supplies nitty he drawn: And to-morrow paper may be c«mlellctl to suspend publication.

ASTONISHING JUMP. Until August, 1914. it was customary for \ustraliar: newspapers to land newsprint in hOr stores at less than £ll per ton. Dur'ng the war prices shot up until an office .•minted itself strangely fortunate if its sup ilv for tiie year averaged less tinui_£3o to 335 a ton. Then when it was anticipated Hat prices would ease, there came a sudden md discomforting hardening for the reasons dready given. A month ago it was possible o purchase parcels at £33 or £34, to-day lie best quotation for Scandinavian paper s £42 5s per ton, c.i'.f. Sydney, which means hat when the paper arrives at any office t will have cost about £43 a ton. So that hero has been a gigantic jump from £ll a on to £4B a ton, with a result that-thcbAns-ralian public to-day is obtaining newstapers which cost hundreds of'thousands a /ear to produce at loss' then . the actual nonoy paid for the raw material, and in ■■cMiio instances.at only half tho price, of the •aw material. These are the circumstances which have compelled ■ New Zealand papers 1 .0 advance tho; price of the whole of (in'ir lublictilions to 2d,, and which must in. the tear future force: (ho Australian, papers .'to nke a step in tho Tamodirection’.

AMERICA’S SERIOUS PLIGHT. 55 DAYS’ SUPPLY ONLY ON HAND By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. Vustrnlian-New Zealand Cable Association Received December 31, 9.45 a.m. MELBOURNE, Dec. 31. Mr Ross, the Canadian Trade Cominis ioner, discussing tin paper shortage, slatec that at. present there was only lliirty-im 'lays’ supply of printing paper in tho whole J North America