THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1894. IMPORTANT INDUSTRY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2647, 17 April 1894, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1894. IMPORTANT INDUSTRY.

Matauka has celebrated a great event iu the opening of its new paper mills. They were opened with great eclat a few days ago, and the event was celebrated with the inevitable banquet, at which large numbers of people from Dunedin, Invercargill, and intervening places were present. Many speeches were delivered, but the moat interesting of all was that in which Mr J. W. Bain, of Invercargill, gave the history of the upa and downs of the industry. The beginning of their misfortunes was that when the owners had decided on sending Home for £BOOO worth of a plant, they met a man from New South Wales, who offered to make the plant they wanted for £2500. They accepted this offer, but the result was that they had to sell out to the present proprietors at a loss of £20,000. He had a medal which he had won for paper at the Sydney Exhibition, but it cost £2500. They met with great the engineer told them the millrace would only cost £SO, but when it was finished they found it swallowed up £llOO. There is no doubt but many an industry in this colony has perished for difficulties in the beginning. For instance, similar reasons, Promoters who had no experience allowed themselves to be gulled by people who had a little knowledge of the enterprises which they pretended to understand. Experiences are thus dearly bought, but doubtless in the course of time these difficulties will be overcome, and the industries of the colony will be properly developed. In the course of his speech one of the proprietors said that it was improbable that they could manufacture white printing paper, and would have to content themselves with brown papers. We regret this, as we should very much like to see white paper made in the colony, and the importation of it stopped. Mr Fenwick, manager of the Otago Daily Times, said that if the mill could laud paper in Dunedin as cheaply as it was imported, he would promise to buy it. We have no hesitation in making a similar promise; in fact, we should not hesitate to give a little more for it. One of those present suggested that a protective duty should be put on imported white paper, so as to enable the locally-produced article to compete with it, but the chairman said that if that were done every newspaper from Auckland to the Bluff would raise a howl of indignation against them. There can be no doubt that the papers would, because they are differently circumstanced to other industries. The owners of other industries could increase the price of their commodities by a percentage sufficient to cover the increased cost consequent on the duty being put on, but ih& newspaper man could not. A newspaper mu.fl ba a pmmy or two pence; its price cannot 1?" 1 .(.raised by J, or or j of a penny, as tin; pries oj giber commodities can. In of this the whole of the tax would fall on the newspaper proprietor; he could not transfer a share of it to bis customers, ami it would simply crush some of the papers, For instance, let us suppose that a newspaper proprietor purchases annually £iOUO- - of paper, and that a tax of 25 per cent were put on, it would mean an absolutely irrecoverable loss of £250 a year. No newspaper could, or ought to bo asked to stand that to bolster up one single mill, but there is a yother kind of (

papers which coold be protected,land that is job printing papers. The printer in this instance can distribute the increased cost amongst his customers, who certainly would not feel it. Let us suppose, again, that a job printer bought £IOOO- - of paper annually, and that the tax came to £250, he could increase the cost of bis jobs so as to recoup his loss. He could distribute the tax amongst his customers and, say there are about 1000 of themit would mean only about 5s each to them. This is the great difference between taxing paper used by newspapers and any other kind of paper. The newspaper man cannot increase his price proportionate to the increased cost. He could only charge another penny for his paper, and that would cover the tax ten times over and be unjust to his customers. We, as one of the newspapers concerned, would certainly object to be mulcted in £3O or £4O, or perhaps £SO, in order to support one mill, but we have not the slightest objection to protection being given to job-printing paper, as the increased cost will be distributed so widely that it would not be felt. We congratulate the proprietors of the Mataura mills on having established so important an industry, and wish them every success.