An Comunn Gàidhealach Publications > Sruth > Volume 1 > No. 33, 27 June 1968

Sruth, Di-ardaoin, 27 latha de’n Og-mhios 1968
Five
TIDE IS SLOWLY TURNING
Wiggins Teape St
Fort William W,
Wiggins Teape hope the tide
i will turn soon for their pulp
: and paper mill at Fort William,
I where last year losses amounted
to £1.7 million. The annual re¬
port paints a sombre picture
of unused capacity and difficul¬
ties in achieving full produaion.
But last week Air Merrick Bag-
gallay, the mill’s general mana¬
ger, emphasised that the group
were convinced that the project
! would be a success in the long
term.
Produaion at the mill amoun¬
ted to 22,000 tons of paper and
42,000 tons Of pulp last year—
j 55 per cent and 52 per cent
respeaively of design capacity.
: The report points out that cur¬
rently the paper machine is
steadily improving on this per¬
formance but indicates the pulp
mill faces two major problems
—the rate of production and the
cost of wood delivered into the
mill.
“Cost of wood, our principal
raw material, delivered into the
mill is crucial to the success and
to the future development of
Fort William,” said Air Baggal-
! lay.
So far praaically all the
mill’s coniferous wood had oeen
supplied by the Forestry Com¬
mission. In accordance with the
supply agreement the company
had repeatedly drawn their
attention to the faa than an
inflation clause in the formula
governing the wood price had
resulted in an uncompetitive
price for the mill relative to
Scandinavian mills.
By August, 1967, the Fores¬
try Commission indicated their
willingness to negotiate the
price of wood at forest road
sides. There remained the
equally important matter or the
cost of transporting the wood to
the mill. This co;t was also
shown to be relatively high be¬
cause of the greater average
distance of the forests from the
mill and to the limitations of
public and forest roads in the
Highlands.
Negotiate
|t “The whole question was
referred to the appropriate
Government departments in
August last year,” the report
continues, “but it tooK nine
months before the Government’s
attitude towards this problem
was revealed to us. The com¬
mission will be permitted to
negotiate a reduction for the
roadside prices which together
with the effeas of sterling de¬
valuation may make our wood
cost competitive in 1968 but the
principle of a new formula
which will maintain the de¬
livered cost of wood on a com¬
petitive basis for the future has
not yet been accepted.”
Without this there could be
no question of increasing the
quantity of wood taken from
Scottish forests above the
amount covered by the present
agreement with the commission.
Besides competitive delivered
)< wood costs it would probably
ill Convinced That
ill Be A Success
need higher average paper
prices and another year or two’s
experience before Fort William
which was so important to the
Highlands and to the group be¬
came reasonably profitable and
could prudently be developed
as originally planned.
The loss in 1967 was £1.7
million (after depreciation of
£460,000), compared with a
loss of £1.6 million during the
nine months of operation in
1966 (when no depreciation was
charged).
Air Baggally said: “We shall
go on as far as we can see ahead
to work the mill up to the
highest efficiency and to do
everything we can, we hope
wnth the aaive support of the
appropriate authorities, to make
the economics of wood pulp
produaion—on a long-term
basis—right.”
Confirming that talks were
taking place with the commis¬
sion about a reduction in the
roadside price, he added:
“This is a contratt matter.”
Questioned about a price agree¬
ment with private owners, Air
Baggally explained. “This is
rather a different field. With
the commission we have e very
major long term agreement
which in fact runs up to 1980.
On the private side, where at
this moment of time quantities
are much ‘Smaller, most of the
private forests are much further
away. The same type of long
term agreement would not be
applicable.”
Great Efforts
Dealing with the problems of
getting a “ major pioneering
projea—because it is that”—
into full gear and running at
maximum output. Air Baggallay
conceded: “ This has taken
longer than we anticipated —
too long. But very great efforts
are being made to push this
ahead, and indeed are succeed¬
ing. This increased efficiency
we do expea by the end of this
year will show its results
iinancially.”
The mill requires 12 million
hoppus feet of timber a year—
eight million of home-grown
conifers and the balance of
hardwoods, prrncipally from
North America. The Forestry
Commission guaranteed to sup¬
ply six million hoppus feet
annually for the 15 years. The
mill planned to buy the balance
from private estates.
Most of the home-grown
wood at the moment comes
from the Commission, but as
produaivity rises the mill will
have to go out to private estates
more and more. So far there
has been no agreement on a
price structure with the Scot¬
tish Woodland Owners’ Associ¬
ation and there is no doubt that
private growers are begining to
feel a little disenchanted about
the situation.
Irritation
One, Mr William John
Christie of Lochdorhart, con¬
fesses to “ a growing sense of
irritation at their continually
attempting to explain away poor
financial results by blaming too
high transport costs and high
raw material prices.
“Carefully chosen compari¬
sons with countries which are
net exporters of pulp and paper
are hardly relevant. If the
6,000,000 hoppus feet of tim¬
ber used by Corpach last year
had been supplied and delivered
free the company would still
have lost £| million on their
year’s trading.”
The Forestry Commission
price-scale has never been dis¬
closed but there are private
growers who maintain they
could get a better price south
of the Border. This is depend¬
ent, however, on transportation
and the question of return loads
to make it economic for them.
There is no doubt therefore
that there is willingness—even
eagerness—on the part of the
woodland owners to negotiate
prices. The association have
now their own marketing
organisation and believe they
are in a position to guarantee
delivery, and initiated talks last
autumn.
These were unsuccessful and
further talks arc likely to be
held in the near future.
There is certainly need for
some plain talking all round.
As Mr Christie puts it:
“Speaking as an individual I
think that even now, if the
company asked the Scottish for¬
est industry to support it in an
approach to the Government for
further assistance to the mill at
Corpach, we would do so whole¬
heartedly.
“If Wiggins Teape spend
another year in attempting to
brainwash the industry into
accepting less than the market
price, I cannot beleve that this
support would be forthcoming
in 12 months’ time.”
From our Eire Correspondent
BIG FUTURE FOR
FEAT
The time may soon come
when peat will be a major
resource in the growing of
tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers
and a number of other horti¬
cultural crops, says Dr Tom
Walsh, director of An Foras
Taluntais.
This is most important when
we consider that peat takes up
one in every five Irish acres
and in many areas it is the only
soil source available.
Two research stations, one at
Glenamoy, Co. Mayo, and the
other at Derrybrennan, Co. Kil¬
dare, are studying how to make
use of our peat for agriculture.
A lot of new information of
international importance is be¬
ing discovered at Glenamoy in
particular. Scientists, who have
come to see it from Norway,
Sweden, Finland, the USSR,
Poland, Newfoundland, Japan
and elsewhere have expressed
their appreciation of the work
being done.
VHF Radio in the
Highlands
It is now almost ten years
since the BBC introduced
VHF sound broadcasting to
the Highlands. Now the nign
quality of reception that this
kind of radio gives is avail¬
able to almost the entire
population of the UK. Be¬
cause VHF transmissions are
limited in their range, it also
makes possible, the exciting
experiments which are now
being carried out in local
radio and thus enables people
living in certain towns to en¬
joy a service specially de¬
signed for them. This kind of
local broadcasting deals with
issues directly ahecting their
town and their lives.
“Community broadcasting”
is not new to us in the High¬
lands. A small service has
been operating since October
1958. It was then that the
VHF transmitter at Rose-
markie in the Black Isle first
broadcast within a radius of
fifty miles, newsletters, inter¬
views, stories and songs that
wrere specially “ made in the
erighlands.” Since then the
coverage has been extended
by means of additional trans¬
mitters to the outer Islands
and many miles of recording
tape have flowed through the
portable recording machines
which the VHF correspon¬
dents have taken from “ Ar-
dersier to Achiltibuie.” It r
these correspondents, a team
of part-tlfne- interviewers
placed throughout the area,
who record the bulk of the
material which reflects the
happenings of the Highlands.
Keeping the reflection an
accurate one is perhaps aided
by the fact that the people
who are asking the questions
are themselves Highlanders
and so are more likely to
share the values and the prob¬
lems of the local listener. To
ensure an accurate coverage
of any particular event, a
wide variety of experience is
available. Included in the
VHF radio team are an
hotelier, an NFU Secretary,
a youth organiser, a house¬
wife, Film Guild Secretary
and a Crofters’ Commis¬
sioner. The programme to
which they mainly contribute
is called “ Town and Country
Magazine.” It covers the hap¬
penings of the area and its
subjects can range from re¬
cording the pageant of local
history as a Highland regi¬
ment disbands, to comment
on the issues of Highland de¬
velopment as they are an¬
nounced. You can hear the
arguments for and against
each project made by the men
responsible. The Highlands
have always been extremely
interested and concerned
about the things which are
happening in the community
around them and a large num¬
ber of local newspapers bear
witness' to this fact. But a
newspaper cannot print the
human voice — the warmest
and most expressive means of
communication. VHF radio
also sets out to entertain us
as well as to inform. It pre¬
sents the music of the area
performed by local artistes
and where talented story-tel¬
lers are found, they’re en¬
couraged to search out and
record the folklore of the
Highlands. Recent projects in
broadcasting for the area have
included a VHF radio drama
festival and a short story
competition for which a large
number of entries were re¬
ceived. The latter resulted in
uncovering a quantity of in¬
teresting material and some
promising writers.
Wist. Griff or A Son
Limited
20 HAMILTON STREET
INVERNESS. TEL. 34343
Inverness Cream
SCOTCH WHISKY