The Evening Star. SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 1870.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 144, 25 June 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star. SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 1870.

Theee are many who hold that manufactories are ill-adapted to the circumstances of young countries. The general high price of labour, the absence of large realised capital seeking investment, the dependence of a manufactory on the steady supply of the requisite raw or prepared material, whether vegetable, animal, or mineral, and ,the experimental and risky character of a new venture in new and untried circumstances, are all enumerated as obstacles in the way ol establishing colonial industries, and as having a deterrent effect on the conservative and cautious feelings of capital. There is force in the objections, and it must be owned that production of raw material rather than its elaboration in manufacture is more in character with the sentiments and position of young communities. But there may be circumstances in particular cases that more than countervail ; and if we are not greatly mistaken those circumstances are to be found among us in relation to the manufacture of paper. Latest advices from England relative to the rise in price of this necessary of life, the gradual exaustion of almost every source of supplying the raw material, the enormous and increasing consumption necessitated by the advance of civilization, combine to draw our attention to the approaching necessity for looking to our own supply of paper ; and we have the material to our hand in limitless abundance, the absence of which is becoming every where else the great obstacle to the manufacture. A cloud is at present hanging over New Zealand flax in home circles ; discouraging for a time

its application to cordage and textile fabrics. This discouragement arises from no questioning of the value of the fibre, but the injurious effects of the adherent substances. Perhaps it may be said without exaggeration that the fibre of New Zealand flax is superior in strength and other good qualities to any other in the world; and it is as certain as its existence, that chemical science, yet in its infancy, will overcome the difficulty. At present we know that difficulty can be overcome; and time alone is requisite to apply the means so cheaply as to make the fibre commercially available for cordage and linen. It is a question if that difficulty in any way debars the fibre from application to the manufacture of paper; or if the means, chemical and otherwise, used in preparing common rags for manufacture, would not exceed in cost the preparations necessary for removing the gum, if requisite, in turning the phormium tenax into paper. To a certain extent this is out of the region of experiment. Paper of the very strongest character and best quality has already been made from our fibre, and the expenditure of £50,000 a y.ear which the colonists of New Zealand make annually in the purchase of imported paper, is a guarantee for the demand. But this is only an approach to the extent of consumption that may arise from the extensive production of paper; articles of every kind in papier mache would follow in the wake. Clothing and furniture, embroidery, hats, bonnets, all from various preparations of paper are pouring in upon us from those two opposite poles of civilization, Japan and America; and it is known that the strongest and most durable piping in the world, for water and gas, has been produced from the same material. It is impossible to enumerate the advance that a few years will show in its application ; and the latter half of the nineteenth century promises to yet be called the " Paper Age." But, waving such considerations, we have a present large demand; the time is most opportune, and itrequires but -_me one of enterprise and spirit to move in getting up a company with a capital of some five or eight thousand pounds, to initiate a manufacture that not only promises to give a good return in dividends, but to confer an incalculable benefit on the public at large.