Part 5
The increase in the exports of paper, wood for pulp and pulp for the twelve months ending June last is 23.8 per cent. To a considerable extent this is due to advancing prices. It will be noticed that the export of wood pulp during the period of the twelve months in question has declined slightly. There is more wood available at the present time than a few months ago. Northern Ontario points report the most acute shortage, although the situation there has improved somewhat.
1915. 1916. 1916. To Britain. To U.S. Paper $16,200,635 $21,256,296 $1,032,786 $17,759,018 Pulpwood 6,463,125 6,102,170 ---- 6,102,170 Wood pulp 9,257,036 12,220,988 672,673 10,793,647 ----------- ----------- ---------- ----------- Total $31,920,796 $39,579,454 $1,705,459 $34,654,835
PULP AND PAPER NEWS
Mr. H. Moore, secretary of the Clements Paper Co., Nashville, Tenn., spent a few days in Toronto and Montreal recently calling upon the trade.
W. J. Gage, President of W. J. Gage and Co., Toronto and the Kinleith Paper Co., St. Catharines, has been awarded $4,000 damages by Arbitrator P. H. Brayton in his claim against the city of Toronto. In connection with the Bathurst street hill improvements a retaining wall was built which stood against the Gage property and the latter contended that the site should be treated as a business location. Mr. Gage witnesses declared that the damage done was several times more than what has been awarded. The official arbitrator took the view that the land occupied by the retaining wall should be paid for and no more and handed out judgment accordingly.
At the annual meeting held recently in Toronto, the report of the directors and the annual financial statement of the Spanish River Paper Mills, Limited, which have already been published in these columns, were presented. The improvement in the company’s position was favorably commented upon. George H. Mead was re-elected president, P. B. Wilson, Vice-president, Thomas Gibson, Secretary and A. H. Chitty, Treasurer.
So serious has become the shortage of news print in Winnipeg, that the newspapers of that city have discontinued giving free copies to employees while all correspondents have been cut off and no free exchanges to other newspapers are given.
The district fire rangers around Port Arthur have returned to their homes having concluded their duties for the present season. The loss from fires in the Thunder Bay district this year was the smallest on record.
John Rumelhart, who was convicted of having stolen pulp wood in his possession, was sentenced at Port Arthur to twenty-six months in the penitentiary. In passing sentence upon him Sir Glenholme Falconbridge stated that the rights of pulp wood owners must be respected. The pulp wood in question was from a storage room of the Horrigan Co., which was located at Black Bay.
The engagement is announced of Miss Edna Frances, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank E. Mutton, Toronto, to Flight Lieutenant Arthur W. Kilgour, youngest son of Mr. Robert Kilgour of Toronto, President of the Trent River Paper Co., Frankford, Ont. Miss Mutton left this week for Bombay, India, where the marriage will take place.
Herbert C. Jarvis, General Manager of the Empire Wall Paper Co., Limited, Toronto, states that the price of all materials entering in the manufacture of wall paper, has increased by leaps and bounds during the past few months and the end is not yet in sight. A few months ago prices were advanced and the company expected that this increase would result in decreased sales but on the contrary the demand is steadily growing. With the large contracts which the firm have, Mr. Jarvis says that he hopes to maintain net prices about the same as are today.
A charter has been granted to Canadian Wood Products, Limited, with headquarters in Toronto and a share capital of $40,000. The company is empowered to manufacture and deal in lumber, pulp and other forest products.
Ald. A. H. Stratton, of Peterboro, who was for many years engaged in the stationery and wall paper business in that city and is a brother of the late Hon. J. R. Stratton, proprietor of the Peterboro Examiner, has, in company with his brother-in-law, T. F. Matthews, purchased the plant and business of the Review Printing and Publishing Co., Peterboro, which has been in liquidation. The Review is one of the oldest in Ontario being established in 1853 by the Whites who later became owners of the Montreal Gazette.
The wholesale paper business in Montreal formerly carried on by John R. MacGregor has been taken over by John R. MacGregor and Thomas Harkness and is now conducted under the name of the MacGregor-Harkness Paper Co.
Port Arthur is to have a large sulphite plant, a free site being given the company on the north water front, of some *0 acres. An agreement has been entered into between the corporation and has several and astern capitalists. The bylaw will be soon voted upon by the ratepayers. The first unit is to be started within thirty days after the carrying of the measure, and be completed and in operation within one year. It will have a capacity of fifty tons a day and, inside of five years, the capacity is to be increased to one hundred and fifty tons whereupon the company will receive a deed for a further tract of land of ninety-seven and one half acres. It is expected that by the time the complete mill of one hundred and fifty tons is finished the outlay on buildings and equipment will be in the neighborhood of five million dollars.
It was stated recently, both in reports on the street and in some newspapers that Hon. G. Howard Ferguson, Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines for Ontario had entered into a secret deal with a large paper company of Appleton, Wis., enabling that concern to export pulp from eight thousand acres of Crown lands in the Thunder Bay district, for manufacture in the United States. It was rumored that the law compelling all pulp wood on Ontario Crown lands to be first turned into pulp or paper in the province, before being sent out of the country, had been set aside by the simple provision of selling the land to the Appleton firm. Hon. Mr. Ferguson has given an emphatic denial to the charge, in which he stated there is not a word of truth, and adds that no suggestion had ever been made to him to allow pulp wood to be exported. He pointed out, in connection with tenders now being called for the right to cut pulp wood and other timber on the Pic river and other territory in the Thunder Bay district covering about 1,400 square miles that the provisions clearly state that the successful bidder must erect a pulp mill with a minimum capacity of one hundred and fifty tons daily which, with its equipment, must cost not less than a million dollars, and also a paper mill with a capacity of one hundred tons a day. The tenders for the Pic River concession close on December 1st.
Thomas Gain, sales manager of the Don Valley Paper Mills, Toronto, who has been ill for some time, is able to be around again and attend to his duties.
Rev. Dr. A. C. Crews, who is editor of the Sunday School publications of the Methodist Book and Publishing House, Toronto, has been elected president of the Toronto Chess Club.
Charles V. Syrett, of the Victoria paper and Twine Co., Toronto, has returned from a motor trip to Erie, Cleveland and other cities. He also visited the mills of the Hammermill Paper Co.
Thomas Wark, who for some time has been superintendent of the Deferiet mill of the St. Regis Paper Co., has resigned his position to enter upon his new duties as superintendent of the St. Maurice Paper Co. at Cap Madeleine, Que.
A charter has been granted to the W. E. Gallagher Printing Co., Limited, with a capital stock of fifteen thousand dollars and headquarters in Kitchener, Ont. to engage in printing, publishing, engraving, book-binding, etc. as well as to deal in paper boxes and stationery. The incorporators of the company are W. E. Gallagher, A. B. Robertson and C. E. Cornell.
LAURENTIDE POWER COMPANY.
An offering is being made of $1,500,000 Laurentide Power bonds at 90 and interest.
The segregation of the Laurentide (Paper) Company’s water powers last year, to the Laurentide Power Company, created a new and very powerful factor in the hydro-electric situation in the Province of Quebec, and particularly as regards Montreal.
The new company was formed by the Laurentide (Paper) Company, with a capitalization of $7,500,000 of common shares, and the money derived from the sale 5% par value of first (closed) mortgage bonds, due 1946, and $10,500,000 of these securities was used to finance the development of the water power to a present capacity of 125,000 horse-power.
CANADA’S PAPER EXPORTS.
In the year ended June 30, 1916, Canada’s exports of paper were of a total value of $21,256,296, as against $16,200,635 in the corresponding period in 1915. Of this former amount $17,759,018 worth or more than the total value of the 1915 export was sent to the United States.
CHEAPER DYES.
As a result of a discovery made at the Forest Products Laboratory at Madison cheaper dyes are now available in the United States. It has been found that dyes made of osage orange wood are a commercial success and can be placed on the market at a considerably less cost than foreign-made dyes can be purchased. Carloads of the wood are now in transit, consigned to eastern extract plants.
* * * * *
The anti union Presbyterians are talking of establishing a weekly paper to forward their cause. The matter is being seriously taken up by the Publication on Committee and the new paper will likely be a weekly.
WANT TO BUY DONNACONA.
According to a press despatch from Watertown, N.Y. as the Pulp and Paper Magazine was going to press the following story regarding the attempted purchase of the Donnacona Paper Company appeared:--
The Donnacona Paper Company, with mills located at Donnacona, Quebec, thirty miles from Quebec City in the St. Lawrence river, is the prize now sought by the French syndicate of Parisian newspaper publishers who failed some time ago to secure control of the Remington Paper and Power Company’s group of mills near here.
The French interests were unable to get permission from the Government boards of France to send money from that country to the United States in time to close the deal before their option expired.
The Donnacona mills is a new mill, having been in operation but a year. It has an output of one hundred tons of paper a day. A feature that appeals to the fact that pulpwood can be bought much cheaper in Canada than on this side.
G. H. P. Gould, paper mill magnate and owner of the St. Regis and Gould Paper Companies, is president of the Donnacona company, with Walter N. Kernan, of New York, vice-president.
AN AMERICAN VIEW
According to an American exchange the following are the facts relating to Canada’s pulp and paper industry:--
The new mills planned and in course of construction, and the extensions to existing ones, will, if carried out as intended, add a per-diem capacity of 840 tons of newsprint before the end of 1918. During the twelve months ended March last the amount of printing paper exported was 463,204 tons, or at the rate of 1,544 tons per day, as compared with a tonnage of 292,579, or 975 tons per day, in the corresponding period ended March, 1914.
INTERNATIONAL PAPER INCREASES DIVIDEND
The International Paper Company doubled its dividend last week by declaring a quarterly distribution of 1 per cent., or 4 per cent. per annum on the preferred stock, as compared with the 2 per cent. annual rate maintained since 1908. There is $22,407,000 of the preferred outstanding.
BUYING CANADIAN MILLS.
N. M. Jones of Bangor, Maine announces that at a conference of capitalists in New York, from which he has just returned, the sale of the largest pulp and paper mill in the Canadian Maritime Provinces to a syndicate of Maine and New York men was arranged. The property, for which it is said $2,000,000 will be paid includes mills at the Reversing Falls, near St. John, N.B., and large timber lands in New Brunswick. The syndicate includes Hugh Chisholm of Portland, President of the Oxford Paper Company, and Maynard S. Bird, also of Portland.
PROTECT YOUR WIRE ROPE WHEN NOT IN USE.
When a shipment of wire rope is received and is not to be placed immediately into service, see that it is stored away in a place protected from the weather and any acid fumes. It is advisable to coat the outside layer of the reel or coil with a good lubricant.
_The Markets_
(Special to Pulp & Paper Magazine.)
CANADIAN MARKETS
The news print situation is now the livest subject among the trade and the seriousness of conditions is being brought home to publishers as never before. The mills are not as alleged by some responsible for it all. While the war is unjustly charged with many ills in the way of trade disturbances, to attribute the present state of affairs entirely to the hostilities in Europe is quite correct, so far as Canada is concerned. Hundreds of men have joined the colors leaving most of the plants short of help and owing to abnormal demand and the embargoes which prevail, abroad--all due to the war,--there is not enough of that very necessity commodity--white paper--to go around. This in brief is, the exact state of affairs. In the past Canadian mills were looking for a market for their surplus product and were glad to make contracts covering a long period of time. News print was looked upon as staple and the variation in price from year to year was small indeed. Now the manufacturers do not know which way to turn. They could sell as much again as they are marketing if they had the productive facilities but of late months they have not been able to “pile up reserves”, as the banks state, and the stocks on hand are rapidly diminishing.
The average publisher has read a great deal about this condition of affairs but as there have been so many extravagant reports in all lines prevailing during this stirring period, he did not think there was much truth in the statement. It was only when the newspaper men tried to renew contracts that he realized for the first time he was face to face with a situation such as he has never been up against. There is no use blaming it on the mills. They have done the best they could under most trying circumstances. They are running their plants to full capacity and they have not unduly taken advantage of the situation to boost prices in Canada. The increase asked is infinitesimal to what the makers can obtain for their product on the other side.
The story is going the rounds, and so far has not been denied, that one of the big new plants of Canada was approached by American interests who offered to take the whole of its output for the coming year at four and a half one cents at the mill but the proposition flattering as it was, was turned down as the firm would not under any circumstances break faith with Canadian customers. Some sixty per cent. of the large newspapers whose contracts are now being carried until the end of the year and will have to be renewed are on the anxious seat.
A special meeting of the Canadian Press Association was held in Toronto last week at which there was a large attendance. The situation was thoroughly gone into. The statement was made that the output in Canada is now some eighteen hundred tons a day, yet only one sixth is consumed in the Dominion, the bulk of the product being exported to the United States. A deputation was sent to Ottawa to interview the Minister of Finance, Sir Thomas White. There representatives of the pulp and paper interest were also assembled and the whole situation was gone thoroughly into. The result was that an offer was made by the news print makers of three cents, f.o.b. mill. This applies to large contracts and on smaller the figures may be higher. It was pointed out by the paper manufacturers, that everything entering into the production of news print has gone up from 25 to four hundred per cent. and that labor has advanced about twenty-five per cent.
The upshot of the whole matter is that the newspaper publishers and the mill operators have appointed such committees which who will go exhaustively into the problem. A joint meeting will be held at an early date before R. W. Breadner, who is the tariff expert for the Dominion and the question of supply, cost and future outlook will be canvassed thoroughly. This meeting will be held in Ottawa and if an amicable arrangement cannot be reached, the federal authorities may fix the selling price.
One interesting statement was made at the conference and that was if the fifty to sixty per cent. increase went into effect on new contracts, it would mean an annual extra cost to Canadian newspapers of about two million dollars. One peculiar feature is that while publishers are talking of increased cost of producing papers the weekly newspaper men are the only ones who have so far raised their subscription rates. The increase is from one dollar to one dollar and half a year. A few dailies that have been selling at three dollars in the smaller cities have jumped their subscription price to four dollars but the larger dailies still continued to be delivered at the old price and the wonder is why the proprietors do not raise the figure for same.
In the book and writing line prices are stiff and are now fully fifty per cent. higher than they were a year ago. The producers think there will be no further raise for some months and in view of abnormal conditions generally the users of these kinds of papers appear to be satisfied that the mills are not asking too much. Tissue plants are running away behind in orders and have business enough on hand to keep them going for the next four months even if no more orders were placed with them. The jobbers report that business is good and the demand for all lines of paper keeps up well. There has been an advance on “B” manilla but other lines of wrappings and kraft remain unchanged.
Ground wood pulp is in strong requisition and many inquiries for the commodity can not be bought filled. The price now quoted at the mill is from twenty-eight dollars up and some deliveries in Wisconsin and other states have brought as high as thirty-five dollars. Easy bleaching sulphite is now sold at one hundred and twenty dollars at the mill and some large business has been placed at this figure. Sulphate pulp is quoted at one hundred and twenty dollars at the mill and is going higher all the time. Very little is being offered.
In the rag and paper stock market manilla, krafts, whites and mixed papers are all in strong demand and there is a good business being done. The market for cotton and roofing rags is rather quiet. The outlook for fall trade at firm prices is most promising.
There has been an increase of a cent a pound on all natural, bleached and half bleached grease proof. Genuine vegetable parchment is now quoted from twenty to twenty-five cents. It is likely that the latter will be made in Ontario before very long. Since the war broke out and certain mills turned their attention to making specialties and former brands of paper that have been imported, the manufacturers of these are not sorry that they took the step. Their goods now have achieved a fixed place in the favor of customers.
Board of all kinds has taken a jump of about fifteen per cent. and the mills are a way behind in their orders. The following prices will prevail until the end of the year and are based on the minimum quantity of car load lots--grey folding pulp board $100; folding pulp $90; pulp non bending $80; pulp non bending lined on side $90; filled board plain $80; filled board lined one side $85; filled board (chip mills) $78; jute, chip, straw and straw chip $70; same lined one side $75.
The following are the Toronto prices:
Paper.
News (rolls) $3.00 up, at mill, in carload lots. News (sheets), $3.25 and higher for small lots, at mill, in carload lots. Book papers (carload), No. 3, $7.00. Book papers (ton lots), No. 3, 7.00c to 8.00c. Book papers (carload), No. 2, 8.50c to 9.00c. Book papers (ton lots), No. 2, 8.75c to 9.50c. Book papers (carload), No. 1, 9.00c to 9.75c. Book papers (ton lots), No. 1, 9.25c to 10.00c. Sulphite bonds, 11 cents up. Writings, 9 cents up.
Grey Browns $3.75 to $4.25 Fibre $6.50 to $7.50 Manila, No. 1 $7.00 to $8.00 Manila, B. $5.00 to $6.00 Unglazed Kraft $8.50 to $9.50 Glazed Kraft $9.00 to 10.00 Tissues, bleached $1.60 to $2.30 Tissues, (manila or white sulphite) $1.20 to $1.60 Tissues, cap. 80c to $1.15 Natural, greaseproof 13c to 18c Half Bleached Greaseproof 15c to 19c Bleached greaseproof 17c to 21c Genuine Vegetable Parchment 22c to 25c Drug papers, whites and tints 9c to 12c Paper bags, Manila 30% discount. Paper bags, kraft 15% discount. Confectionery bags 15% discount.
Pulp.
F.O.B. Mill. Ground woodpulp $31.00 to $32.00 Easy Bleaching Sulphite 6c Sulphite, news grade 5c to 5½c Sulphite (bleached) 8c to 8½c Sulphate 6c
Paper Stock
No. 1 hard shavings $4.00 No. 1 soft white shavings $3.50 No. 1 mixed shavings 80c White blanks $1.35 Heavy ledger stock $2.35 No. 1 book stock $1.57½ No. 1 Manila envelope cuttings $2.20 No. 1 print Manilas $1.25 Folded news 77½ Over issues 77½ No. 1 clean mixed paper 65c Old white cotton $4.65 Thirds and blue $2.75 No. 1 white shirt cuttings $7.25 Black overall cuttings $2.75 New light flannelettes $5.50 Ordinary satinets and flock $2.00 Tailor Rags $1.90
MONTREAL MARKETS.
Book--News--Writing and Posters.
Roll News, $3.00 for carloads proportionate increase on small lots.
Sheet News, $3.25 carloads, $3.50 up small lots.
No. 1 Book, 7.50 to 8.25.
No. 2 Book S.C., 6.50 in large quantities; 7.25 in small quantities.
No. 3 Book F.M., 6.00 in large quantities; 6.75 in small quantities.
Writings, 6.95 to 10.
Writing Manila, 6.95.
Cover papers, 11 to 14½c, according to colors wanted.
Colored Poster, 6½ to 7½c.
An extra charge of 10c per 100 lbs. will be made when Book Papers are packed in frames, and 15c per 100 lbs. when packed in cases.
Wrapping Papers.
The following are the new prices on wrappings, effective immediately:
Car 1-ton Small lots. lots. lots. Beaver, Brown wrap 100 lbs. 4.00 4.25 4.60 No. 2 Manila (present stock) 100 lbs. 4.00 4.25 4.60 Samson B., 100 lbs. 5.25 5.60 6.00 No. Manila, Invincible Fibre, 100 lbs. 5.50 5.85 6.25 Fibre lighter than basis 24×36--40, down to 24×36--30, 5 per cent. extra. This is in addition to the usual extra. White Wray, Cleaver, 100 lb. 3.40 3.65 3.90
DYES AND EYE FATIGUE.