PRICES OF CARDBOARD

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21038, 14 February 1940, Page 9

PRICES OF CARDBOARD

APPEAL BY PAPER MILLS TRIBUNAL BEGINS HEARING (By Telegraph.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Tuesday The Whakatane Paper Mills Company’s application to the Price Investigations Tribunal for permission to increase its prices for the cardboard it manufactures is being heard today. There is a large attendance and Mr Justice Hunter is presiding. Mr H. P. Richmond, Auckland, is appearing for the company, and Dr. N. A. Foden for the Crown, Mr W. Perry representing the users of the products. Mr Richmond said New Zealand was the only country in which cardboard was produced that had not granted protection to the industry. Dr. Foden: They said they did not want it. “It may be they did not,” said Mr Richmond. He was concerned, however, only with stating the problem as it existed. He was going to submit that the tribunal must of necessity take the facts as they existed and deal with them and not with any principal ones, because the tribunal had to deal with a war emergency and decide whether or not the mill was to continue production. In the first place, he asked that prices should cover the actual cost of production and, secondly, that there should be sufficient allowance to cover interest on borrowed capital invested solely in the mill and its necessary adjuncts, such as the branch railway and pumping station. The total cost of the mill and adjuncts was £586,000. Mr Richmond said the company had a very large sum invested in the 47,000 acres of plantation, but on that it did not ask one penny interest or other charge. The company suggested practically that a net return of 5£ per cent in the day of dividends to shareholders was a perfectly reasonable request. He proceeded to outline what the undertaking meant in New Zealand’s business economy, stressing what would have to be found in dollar exchange for importations. The hearing was adjourned until to-morrow.