PAPER MANUFACTURE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16200, 25 November 1926, Page 12

PAPER MANUFACTURE

POSITION 1M NEW ZEALAND.

INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS IN HAND. The establishment of man-made forests in New Zealand has now become a major activity of both the Government amt of private enterprise. At- the end of the present planting season' there will probably be over 160,000 acres of forest land in existence. However, it is not enough merely to plant these areas; they must be .managed in accordance with the best canons of forestry practices. Not- only is it necessary to provide hie protection, and 0* control deer and insect- pests, but it is also necessary to remove periodically from man-made forestn a number of the smaller and weaker trees. This secures tile maximum production of wood commensurate with trees of good shape and grade lor nulling.

A Mew Zealand Times representative learned that having regard to these measures the Forest Service lias been actively engaged! since 1921 in studying the methods of utilising these intermediate products. Careful and considered surveys have been made of every conceivable means of utilisation—-for firewood, creosoted posts and. poles, saw timber, for destructive distillation, and for pulp and paper.

PULL* AND PAPER INDUSTRY. OF these, the pulp anc? paper industry differs a most promising avenue for utilising intermediate products. This would further offer an outlet .for enormous quantities of logging and milling waste m adjacent native forests. The first studies made by the Forest Service into the pulping and papermaking properties of Mew Zealand-grown woods were conducted! in 1921. Since then a number of other studies Jiavo been completed, and even now further studies are in progress. Viewed in the light or recent developments in pulp and paper making technique, especially in the case of hard woods, the results of the work indicate that there is hope that every class of paper used in Mew Zealand may he manufactured from New Zealand-grown materials. 1 lie Forest Service will shortly proceed wilh the publication of a report covering its recent studies, which are still being continued with a view to securing oven more detailed information of locally-grown woods. '-this is the technical aspect of the question : l’aper pulp is chiefly cellulose fibres, and, since cellulose is the basic structure of all woody plants, some kind of pulp and paper can be mada from c ' e r.V species of wood The practical question is whether any pulp can be made cheaply, in sufficient quantities, and of a quality which will enable it to compete with other paper-making materials in oilier countries. This is a matter which the Forest Service has under review.