DISPUTE OVER PRICES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 January 1940, Page 7

DISPUTE OVER PRICES

PP.ODUCTION MAY BE SUSPENDED WHAKATANE PAPER MILLS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, January 9. Notice of dismissal has been given to employees of Whakatane Paper Mills, Limited, and there is every prospect that production will be suspended next wek after a disagreement between the company and the Government concerning the prices the company is to charge for its paper-board. A statement to this effect was made tonight by the managing director of the company, Mr. H. A. Horrocks. “We are an Australian company, and though we are prepared to co-operate with the New Zealand Government to any reasonable extent my directors do not feel justified in continuing operations at unprofitable prices,’” Mr Horrocks said. "Refusal of the Price Tribunal to give reasonable consideration to the company’s new price list has brought about the present deadlock. and till the Controller of Factories, Mr G. A. Pascoe, is prepared to accord full recognition to manufacturing costs rising under war-time conditions and the Government’s industrial legislation, there is no sense in carrying on. “Some 232 men will be thrown out of employment and. as the company's wages bill approximates £l4OO a week, cessation of production for however short a time will mean a severe loss io the district,” Mr. Horrocks added. He said the plant had been in operation for six months and it was rapidly approaching a high state of efficiency, as the men were now fairly well trained and many, initial problems had been satisfactorily solved. Production for the four weeks prior to Christmas approximated 650 tons valued at £13,500. and production for the current week was estimated to exceed £4OOO. For the current year it was expected the plant would manufacture at least 10,000 tons of board for the local market and. based on overseas prices, the turnover should exceed £300.000.