Fifty newspaper publishers of Florida are considering establishment of a plant to manufacture paper from pulp of fibrous trees and bushes in that state, particularly palmetto. Investigations have shown fibrous material is of better quality than spruce pulp which is used in manufacture of newsprint.
In connection with the advance in paper issues, timber limits, which normally have a value of about $1,000 a square mile, have risen to $2,000 a square mile.
A prominent dealer who returned a few days ago from the Quebec woodlands reports that the supply of pulpwood this year is but 50 per cent. of what it was a year ago because of the inability to get labor.
The following information furnished by United States consuls and published in the United States Commerce Reports, will be of interest to the Canadian paper trade:--
Government May Take Action to Relieve Brazilian Situation.
The scarcity of paper, and particularly of news-print paper, in Rio de Janeiro is still a serious matter. While stocks have been replenished, there are signs that another crisis is approaching. The “Jornal do Commercio”, the leading daily paper of the city, in an editorial on July 7, seriously proposed that unless the Brazilian Congress saw fit to reduce the import duties on news-print paper for a time, all the newspapers of the country should begin to eliminate news that was superfluous and print smaller daily editions so as to save paper.
The matter has attracted widespread attention, perhaps on account of the impressions that importers usually profit by a scarcity on the local market to make exorbitant demands for what stocks they may have on hand. Although the serious situation now confronting the country has been looming up threateningly for a long time past, no effort seems to have been made to save paper or to collect waste paper and rags.
Senhor Dunshee de Abrantee, of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, himself a man familiar with journalism and the needs of the paper trade, has already presented to Congress a proposed amendment to the forthcoming budget law, providing that imported paper shall pay no duty and only the expediente tax on entering the country.
The scarcity of paper in Spain has caused some anxiety, and representatives of Spanish publishers, printers, and manufacturers of paper and cardboard have informed the Government of their willingness to postpone filling export orders until after the domestic demand for their products has been fully met. They also expressed a desire that the Government fix prices and conditions to control the export of raw materials used in paper manufacture. Accordingly, a royal order, published June 15, 1916, appointed a commission, a representative of the Government presiding, formed of three delegates chosen from each interested group, namely, paper manufacturers, newspaper publishers, and those engaged in bookmaking arts.