PAPER MANUFACTURE.

Thames Star, Volume LX, Issue 16958, 3 December 1926, Page 6

PAPER MANUFACTURE.

POSITION IN NEW ZEALAND.

INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS IN HAND.

WORK OF STATE'FOREST SERVICE

Tlie establishment of man-made forests in New Zealand has now become a major activity of both the Government and 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 fire protection, and to control deer and insect pests, but it is also necessary to remove periodically from man-made forests a number of the smaller and weaker trees. This secures the maximum production of wood commensurate with trees, of good shape and grade for milling A N.Z. Times representative learned that having regard to these measures the Forest Service has 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. PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY. Of these ,the pulp and paper industry offers 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 bv the Forest Service into the pulping and papermaking industries of New Zealandgrown woods were conducted iii 1921. Since then a number of other studies have been completed, and even now further studies are in progress. The results of certain studies have already been broadcasted for public information in Circulars 5 and 6, published by the New Zealand Stale Forest Service. These contain the results of two series of tests made in co-operation with the Imperial Institute of London, and with

Messrs. Boring and Co., Ltd., pulp and paper machinery manufacturers, of London. The Imperial Institute tests covered six of the nriuciual native*hard woods—red beech (Nothofagus fusco), black beech (N. Solardio), silver beech (N. Mevizresii), mountain beech (N. Cliffortivides), ramaki (Weinmamu’a racemoza), and tawa (Beelschmudia tawn); and two of the principal introduced soft woods—pinus levieio and;

pinus radiata. ENCO UKAG INC EXPERIMENTS

The soda process of pulping was used , throughout. In the other study, two . of the native soft woods, rimu and white pine, and lour of the hard woods previously mentioned-—red, black and . silver beech, and tawa—were pulped by the sulphate process. The pulps produced in both cases were similar to . those secured in the reduction of foreign soft woods and hard woods by corresponding processes. Specimen sheets of paper were also manufactured. ( from these pulps. The results were encouraging, and the Forest Service has since been studying in greater detail the pulping and paper-making properties of a number of ifiiese woods. Viewed in the light of recent developments in pulp and paper-making technique, especially m the case of hard " oods, the results of the 5 work indicate that there is hope that every class of paper used in New Zealand may bo manufactured from New Zealand-grown . materials. ECONOMIC ASPECT. The Forest Service will shortly proceed with the publication of a report covering its recent studies, which are still being continued with a view to . securing even more detailed information relaing to the economic utilisation of locally-grown woods. This is( the technical aspect of tlie question: Paper pulp is chiefly cellulose fibres, aiid, since cellulose is the basic structure of all woody plants, some kind of pulp and paper can be made from every 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 other countries. This is a matter which the Forest Service has under review.