Newsprint Price Trebled Since 1938

Northern Advocate, 12 March 1948, Page 5

Newsprint Price Trebled Since 1938

WELLINGTON, Fri. (P.A.) The landed cost of newsprint to New ZeaTand publishers will be increased by another £2/5/4 per ton as from April 1. according to advice received from Canada by the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association.

This will bring the price of newsprint to about treble what it was before the war.

The 1938 landed cost of newsprint was approximately £l3/10/- a ton, but throughout the war years the price rose steeply to £35/10/- a ton at the cessation of hostilities.

But this was not the end of price increases. During 1946 further rises added another £3 to the cost.

Price increases continued throughout 1947 and the landed cost now has risen to a new level of close on £47 a ton.

IMPORTS HALVED

The cost of importing newsprint into New Zealand does not finish at New Zealand main ports, and it is estimated that, with this latest rise, it will cost New Zealand publishers at main ports about £SO a ton by the time their paper is on the machines ready for printing. For many provincial papers the price will be far in excess of £SO, owing to heavy freight charges to various provincial towns. Before the war Newspaper Proprietors’ Association members imported 31,000 tons of newsprint annually. This year, owing to the dollar crisis and import restrictions, importations for members has been held down to 17.000 tons, or only a little over half the pre-war imports.