PAPER SHORTAGE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3445, 26 March 1920, Page 7

PAPER SHORTAGE.

w~ N]£WSI’APERS THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION. ALL MARKETS STRIPPED. PRICES SOARING. A cable message received in Wellington on Tuesday evening threw futher light on the seriousness of the situation o.ollfl'Olltillg ‘the "newspaper proprietors of New Zealand con‘ce‘rning the supplies of printing paper for 1920. According to the message in question, the outlook is black indeed, it being inlpossibl'e at the monient to urzmxgo for expected deliveries. some idea of the gravity of the situation may be gathered from the comments of an Australian journal:—-

Commenting on the present state of the newsprint (paper) market, this journal recently remarked that all over Ausfralia and New Zealand there are newspapers threatened with extinction. They have reached the end of the newspaper supplies, and replenishments are not in sight. Some

are eking out a hazardous existence for :1 few weeks or nionths longer by iborrowing from c<__)m.pet.itors slightly -better placed. These loans, however, have also ceased, because no oifice has any surplus left, and each is working on a hand-to-mouth'system.

I The crisis has grown more acute during the last few weeks. The position was bad enough at the beginning of December. To-day it is 50 per cent worse. The position during the war was that paper i.n abundance could be bought, but there was an increasing difiiculty in finding ships to carry it. To-day the shipping is available," but there is no paper for sale. LOOKING TO CANADA. Australian and New Zealand newspapers, because of the war, became almost entirely “depéndellt upon the Canadian paper mills during 1919,‘ and looked to them to provide any supplies for 1920. Just when contracts were reacly for signature, however, the shortage of newsprint in North Amer:ica (which had been concealed from general knowledge)‘ became apparent. l American papers haying largely in- ‘ creased their prices and their advertisj ing rates, were able to pay much higher charges for the materials, and the iexchango rate further gave them an jenormous advantage over Australas sian and British competitors. They had thus cut deeply into Canadian stocks, so that even Canadian

‘_.-z:pe:'s: \\'L‘l'(‘ <:ont’lfoutod with :1 possible launmc, no mzl.ttcr what they might, pay. The Czmztdiaxx nlullufactul'or, compelled to sell in C:lna.da by Government control at £l7 per ton, naturally pl'el:'crr(~«l to place his output in New York ‘at £254 péi‘ ton.

The Czuiadiun markeitgg because of these local conditions, was suddenly closed against Australia and NEW Zealand. It is extremely improbable that" the Commonwealth and Dominion will draw from Canada even one—.t'oul-th of

the newsprint which they reooivocl from that Dominion. last year. In these c'ircumst.ances Australian and New Zoaland papers, like the great journals of New‘ York, South ‘America. France_, Italy, and Gl'e:’L't Britain, had to turn to the paper-making countries of the Old World, and chiefly to Scandinavia, in the hope of retrieving the situation. PRICES ON THE JUMP.

With all these buyers in the II):,l1'lit‘t bidding almost t'ranticall_v for :~,i()cliS. prices commenced to jump, and American quotations followed in concert. In the rush. some were lucky and some were not. Some had reason to believe that they were very lucky, until it was discovered that the output of the mills lnu] been considerably oversold, whereupon most unplemsant shocks were received by buyers on this side. What they thought to be firm contracts turned out to be waste paper, because they were int'ormed that large purcels'upon which they had relied would not reach them, be cause -the mills could not produce the paper. The scramble for wl‘.-at little is left has therefore been something of a panic, and agent after zigeni. in Australia has been forced to inform prospective clients that he cannot quote at any price for any quantity for delivery at any time, The condition of the climbing market is best disclosed in a table settiiig forth actual quotations during the last few inontlis, and its -significance may not be realised unless it. is borne in mind that. paper was lauded, duty paid, in Australia and New Zcaland ports before the war at £ll 10/ per ton. These, according to Australian reports, were the best prices olfered:—— I .1919 Per ton. ; 5.‘: S t July? E October 3 .. .... .. . 332} 0 E October 27 : October 5 .... .. . . 33 10 I October 29 ‘O December 2 ... .. . . 42 10 f December 31 ... .. . 44 10 ’ 1920 ..Tanuar_\' .l 5

There are no quortations current so far as New Zculzmd is cQllcm'lle(l. The prico.~: have deterred pl'opl-iotol~s from entering‘ into contracts for 1921, and only small }>2'n'cels are obtainable for dCli\'m'y in 1.920, the pl'i<:.e.< being more thzm doublv those ‘ruling last. year. l7l2<lm' Hwsv conditions it appears to be ixl(>\'lt:lhlc t’h::t' 1119 size of papers will m'ol‘)'\\'llo2'o be roduvod, and the "rutioning"’ of :u!vol“tising will become lllliVCl'S{ll. A sharp 1-i.<o'in advel'l:isonlenl‘ rates ix‘ also to be anti-(,'i},-:U:P(1.

Jutluary lb’ 51 5 January 20 . . . . . . . . (30 0 Jz1n11:11*39 23 . . . . . . . . 72 0 February 1 . . . . . . . . 75 0