Hardwood Planting For Pulp Advised

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32119, 15 October 1969, Page 30

Hardwood Planting For Pulp Advised

(New Zealand Press Association) ROTORUA, October 14. New Zealand’s forestry industry was told tonight that softwood was no longer the premium material for pulp it was once thought to be.

Representatives of all sectors of the forestry and timber industries were also told that New Zealand would have to increase its hardwood resources to meet the overseas demand in future years. Mr J. C. Westoby, deputy director of the forestry and forest industries division of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, said hardwood pulp would in future be much more important than it was today.

The industry had tended to think that long fibre, coniferous pulp was tfie ideal pulping material and that, provided there was enough of it, there was no need to look around for hardwoods.

“The situation today is very much different There is every indication that the shortage of hardwood pulp will soon be as pressing a problem as was the shortage of softwood pulp some 10 to -J years ago. 'The likelihood is that technological progress will still further reduce the technical differences between hardwoods and softwoods. “I imagine that already, given the technological trends in pulping, New Zealand is reviewing the possibilities offered by some of its native hardwoods and the desirability of supplementing them by planting exotic hardwoods."