WHAKATANE PAPER MILLS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 11 January 1940, Page 3

WHAKATANE PAPER MILLS

MINISTER'S REPLY TO COMPLAINT QUESTION OF PRICE OF PRODUCTS INCREASES MUST BE RELATED TO COSTS [Unjted Press Association) WELLINGTON, This Day. “I have had Mr Horrocks’s proposed price list for products of his mill exhaustively examined by the Price Investigation Tribunal, the Factory Controller ,and the State Forest Service and by the Department of Industries and Commerce, and without exception, and in definite and emphatic terms, they recommend against granting increases to the extent asked for by the Whakatane Paper Mills, Limited, through Mr Horrocks,” said the Minister of Supply, Mr Sullivan, in a statement last night. “We wish to be absolutely fair to Mr Horrocks, to the cardboard boxmaking industry, and to the public,” continued the Minister, “and I am advised that price increases authorised be such as should be satisfactory and profitable if the industry were conducted with reasonable efficiency and not overloaded with unnecessary charges. “We are not, however, prepared to allow Mr Horrocks to pass on to the industry and the community the cost of inefficiency, certain excessively high salaries, and the adverse effect of only partial production, when a reserved market will permit of greater production with consequential lower unit costs. “For Mr Horrocks to suggest that the Government is attempting to dictate to the Whakatane company is typical of his peculiar mentality, as revealed by the fact that he has on a number of previous occasions endeavoured to force financial assistance from the Government by threats of discharging his workers. “The public will be able to judge the value of his statement that he is prepared to permit the cardboard boxmakers to have full access to his company’s costing records, when I say that examination of these records indicates that little attention has in the past been devoted to such vital matters. “Since the outbreak of war and its spread to Scandinavian countries, it has been increasingly difficult to obtain supplies of cardboard, which is a very essential commodity in manufacture and trade to-day. The management of 1 the Whakatane company is, of course, fully aware of this, and no doubt considers that these war conditions place it in such a strong position that it can force the public to pay for its extravagance and mistakes, and a substantial premium in addition. “I can assure Mr Horrocks and the Whakatane company and the public, too, that this will not be permitted, and that price increases granted by the Price Investigation Tribunal must be related to legitimate increases in costs.”