THE COST OF PAPER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14703, 2 June 1920, Page 8

THE COST OF PAPER.

The high price of paper was discussed; at a gathering of newspaper men held' recently in London. : , ■; . . "With paper at ojd a pound," said.' Lord ; Riddell,- is justification for gloomy prognostications. The position is serious for newspapers with a large circulation to carry on business at the. present time. . „"Very few are carrying on at a profit, if they debit paper at- sjd per lb. I am in doubt whether we are entitled to- give public? the benefit of supplying them with a commodity at prices which they have .previously paid." ' . Mr Cousins said that before the war we consumed and exported from this country 33,0t)0 tons of paper and boards weekly, of which two-thirds were manufactures!! here. "It was," he added, "largely because paper was dumped ••• here by Germapy that" prices were kept so low, so that most British makers had not the heart to go l ahead with new- enterprises. -Owing, to the war we have come up against a world shortage." "The present quotations show an advance of 600 per cent, on pre-war prices for pulps alone, and I cannot agree that this is justified. If, : suppliers of raw material would'he satisfied with a handsome and substantial profit \per ton, they could put tlieir goods in at any-' ■thine; between four to four and a-half times pre-war prices, and this would save the industry ion raw materials alone, exclusive of that supplied by our Colonies, a sum of nearly; £12,000,000 a year. • • we cannot-', and I question if the Government will, allow ,this state of things to continue." - Viscount Burnham said that he was certain that it would be their duty soon to decide in real and ■ downright earnest to. paper resources of the Empire, or for years to conie there was likely to be a shortage that would react prejudicially on the whole of the national life.