NO PAPER BAGS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 166, 9 April 1920, Page 6

NO PAPER BAGS

« ANOTHER SHORTAGE THREATENED "There i 9 going to be such an acute famine in paper bags that a great deal of the shopping in the near future will have to be done with baskets and other receptacles." This prediction was mado to a Christchurch "Sun" representative by a merchant, who was pointing out that, in the near future, a famine in many kinds of paper was a certainty. Whilst the main trouble is concerning supplies of newsprint paper, suppliers abroad are also closing down on orders for paper bags and other kinds 'of paper. The merchant showed, as evidence of this, a number of cancellations and withdrawals of quotations from Canada and England. In England, it wa3 stated, it is impossible to supply the trade there—let alone export. At oue time -mills in New Zealand produced almost .all the paper bags, etc., that are required. They are now unable to secure sufficient sulphite pulp for the purpose, and an'endeavour is being mado —but iiuoro or less unsuccessfully—to get these classes pf paper from Canada and other countries. The trouble is that the New Zealand mills have no machinery for pulping timber.' In Canada, the wood is ground and chemically treated into a sulphite pulp. The NewZealand manufacturers import this sulnhite pulp, and mix with it old paper, tussock, rags, etc. From this they manufacture papej* for their special requirements. ■