THE PAPER SHORTAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 April 1920, Page 5

THE PAPER SHORTAGE.

! PROBABLE BAG FAMINE, | Christchiirch, April 8. "There is 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 made to-day by a merchant who was pointing out that in the near future a famine in many kinds of paper was a certainty. While 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 was stated, it is impossible to supply the trade there, lot alone export. At one time, mills in New Zenland, produced almost all the paper bags, etc, that were required. They are now unable to secure sufficient sulphate pulp for the purpose and an endeavor is being made —but more or less unsuccessfully—to get these classes of 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 sulphate pulp. The New Zealand manufacturers import this sulphate pulp and mix with it old paper, tussock, rags, etc. Vrom this they manufacture paper for their special requirements.