8,000,000 MATCHES A DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 246, 11 July 1919, Page 7

8,000,000 MATCHES A DAY

— . o ._ BRITISH COMBINE'S BID FOR WORLD TRADE. v The, amalgamation of the four matchmaking concerns under the name of Messrs. Maguiro, Paterson, and Palmer, Ltd., is the preliminary to. a big attempt to oust foreign match makers from Britain, and to capture a large rart.of the world trade in matches not held by Britain before tlio war.

On the\4s-acre site which has been acquired at Liverpool a model factory is to be erected, which will find employment, for some 2500 workpeople. Sneci-ally-designed machinery, which will, it is stated, be an improvement on the lapsed German patents, will be installed to -give an output of 8,000,000 matches a day. '

At the head of the concern is Sir Alexander ,H. Maguire, who led tho'Successful "phossy jaw" 'campaign -many years ago for the elimination of the use of yellow phosphorus in match-making, and who during the war,- when Eussian supplies of timber were cut off by the closing of the Baltic, made a world tour for suitable timber, ultimately finding in Japan the material for continuing tho home industry.

"Tho~new works," said Sir Alexander to a "Daily News" representative, "will be the most up-to-date in the world in equipment. We shall make every endeavour to embody, both in the letter and in the spirit, the Wfiitley principle. The British public can look forward to securing more and better matches and fewer " During the war Maeuire. Miller, and Co. delivered to the War Office'for.the use of the armies in the field over 100,000,000 boxes of safety matches at cost price.