RAILWAY SLEEPERS FOR AMERICA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1208, 26 April 1895, Page 7

RAILWAY SLEEPERS FOR AMERICA.

A NEW USE FOR SAWDUST. 1 Some time ago the Government had a number of hardwood sleepers cut in the Colony to the sizes and dimensions used by the railway companies at Home for their lines, and a trial shipment was despatched three months ago. By next mail it is anticipated that full details of the results will come to hand. Information has just been received by the Department of Commerce and Industries that there is a capital opening for this class of timber in North America, where there is an enormous demand for railway sleepers. In durability the American timbers are far inferior to the New Zealand hardwoods. As railway sleepers they have only a " life " —to use a technical phrase —of some six years, while our woods will last twice as long for the same purpose. Steel ties or sleepers, with a life of 25 years, are coming into vogue in America, but they so considerably enhance the cost of construction and maintenance that the introduction there of our hardwoods, with their lasting qualities, would be sure to command ; a large cjrade , from the start, seeing that they can be landed in America at from 3 s to 3s 6d a sleeper. It is quite on the cards that full particulars as to this matter will be obtained by our Government, with a view to a trial shipment of railway sleepers to the United States.

There is yet another direction in which our timber may be turned to account, and by which what is now but unregarded waste may be used to grnat advantage. Mr Freyberg (the timber expert at Home) has just forwarded through the Agent-General a report dealing with the large trade done by Norway, Sweden and Russia in furnishing the English market with wood pulp for paper-making purposes. This pulp is manufactured out of sawdust and wood shavings, which in New Zealand are treated as so much rubbish. Millions of tons of the pulp are shipped to London every year. In New Zealand millions of tons of sawdust and shavings are annually put into the fire or otherwise got rid of. The Colonial Treasurer and the AgentGeneral are now enquiring into the matter and the Government will be supplied very shortly with full information of the process of manufacture and the possibilities of opening up a trade in this article.