NEWSPRINT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21156, 1 October 1938, Page 22

NEWSPRINT

RISE OF 25 PER CENT. By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, September 30. Newspapers in New Zealand, according to Mr C. W. Earle, president of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association, are faced with further additions to their costs of production which will almost certainly necessitate North Island daily publications abolishing the discount now allowed to weekly subscribers. Speaking at the half-yearly meeting of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association, Mr Earle said that English prices for newsprint paper for 1939 had recently come to hand, and they indicated a further increase in price of about 25 per cent. Canadian prices were not yet available, but on present appearances they would be on a parity with the English figures. This prospective increase in newsprint paper prices followed on increases in costs in other directions which had been rapidly climbing during the last three years. Increased wages and shortened hours of work accounted for added costs totalling from 18 to 22 per cent. Cable service costs had gone up, transport charges were heavier than ever, overseas freights were moving in the wrong direction, rates, taxes and prices of materials and services of all descriptions were up, and there was no prospect of relief in any direction. In the South Island and in some parts of the North Island newspapers had been forced to withdraw the discount to weekly subscribers and make a uniform price in order to meet these increased costs. Mr Earle added that in the North Island action in this direction had been postponed, but in the light of the latest very substantial advance in newsprint he did not see how it could be any longer avoided. It would be desirable, however, to await official news from Canada as to the 1939 contract prices before reaching a final decision on the question. This course was agreed to.