Pulp Industry May Cost £25,000,000

Northern Advocate, 6 August 1949, Page 7

Pulp Industry May Cost £25,000,000

WELLINGTON, Sat., (Sp.)—Establishment of a pulp paper industry.in New Zealand may cost £25,000,000. Mr G. H. Mackley (O—Wairarapa) who is chairman of directors of Whakatane paper mills said this in the House of Representatives yesterday. He was commending the Governments efforts to establish the industry at Murupara. Mr Mackley said he had always had great faith in the success of a pulp and paper industry in New Zealand because of the great timber resources and the rapidity with which those resources could be reproduced.

LATE START REGRETTED The cost of establishing the industry seemed a lot of money, said Mr Mackley, but the cost of importing newsprint and chemical pulp and the possibility of exporting newsprint and pulp had to be considered. It was a great pity that a newsprint industry had not been established years ago. There had been some degree of illadvised hostility at the time both inside and outside the House. Ready assistance had been given by the Tasmanian Government to overseas interests wanting to start newsprint projects in Tasmania, and it was to be regretted that the New Zealand Government of other days ,had not been similarly helpful. .