NEWSPRINT.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 September 1920, Page 4

NEWSPRINT.

BETTER SUPPLIES ASSURED. SUBSTANTIAL INCREASES IN PRICE. It is reported that the position in New Zealand in regard to newsprint shows every indication of becoming much easier in the future in regard to the supjjlies available, though the price will be very high in comparison with rates ruling as lately as last year. Pre r sent advices go to show that full stocks will be available for New Zealand next year. Larger supplies will be available very soon, this year, and thereafter the Canadian mills expect to be able to send down the full 12,000 tons per annum which New Zealand requires. The price, however, will be extremely high ; so high tiiat an advance in advertising rates seems almost inevitable. For paper coming .down from Canada for the next four months the price will he about double that paid last year. This is cheaper, than the price asked for the Scandinavian paper which was oil offer in the Dominion earlier in the year, and much cheaper than the lowest price quoted for English newsprint in Australasia. Seeing that paper last year cost about £35 per ton, the newspapers of the Dominion are faced with the prospect of having to find a great deal more revenue next year. The paper that is promised to New Zealand has been made available, it is asserted, solely because New Zealand in her preferential tariff system admits Canadian paper free, while foreign paper is subject to a 20 per cent duty. It was represented to Canada that unless they could supply New Zealand there would be a very strong claim by the newspaper companies in New Zealand for the remission of the duty on foreign newsprint. It has been represented to the Prime Minister on more than one occasion that Australian newspapers are able to buy paper in any market, whereas the New Zealand tariff imposes a very severe handicap upon the users of paper generally when they have to buy supplies outside the British Dominions. There was an expectation that the Government would this season abandon the preferential tariff on foreign newsprint, but- tlie Canadian manufacturers, realising tin's probability, have undertaken to supply New Zealand with the whole of its requirements in newsprint, so that this Dominion will be enjoying a very .much bettor supply, relatively, than Australia will, so far as Canadian paper is concerned.

Prices for next year will not he less than prices now quoted. A small quantity of English newsprint has been offered at per lb, and Japanese newsprint can ho landed here at 10Jd per 111. These prices, which are for shipments during the next few months, may he taken as an indication of the prices that will have to he paid probably for the next eighteen months. There is no relief in sight in the matter of prico. j