PAPER-MAKING
■ 9 DIFFICULTIES IN AUSTRALIA. While it is true that samples of news print paper manufactured from Australian timber have been produced recently in Western Australia, expert opinion holds out no hope that the Commonwealth will be able to manufacture anything but a very limited proportion of its requirements Tn this direction (says the Melbourne "Age’'). The natural difficulties in the way of manufacture upon a large scale are said to be almost insuperable. The experiments in Western Australia have been conducted by the Forest Products Laboratory, the paper being obtained from karri waste from the mills.
Mr. R. N, Corney, general manager of the Australian Paper Mills Co. Ltd., when questioned regarding the prospects of the industry, said that the samples he had seen were good, but that it was extremely difficult to gauge from a mere laboratory test whether manufacture would be commwrcially possible. One point that had to be taken into account was the commercial value of the timber itself. As tho price of paper decreased in other countries it would bo impossible to use Australian timbers unless they decreasedk l.i, value proportionately. It was . suggested that young karri might be used, hut they had no knowledge as to the growth of young karri, or as to the plantations or the stock to be drawn upon. There, was n.lso tho question of the strength of the paper produced, and in •the samples he hail seen the fibres had been very -sh<s''t, end would, an his opinion, certainly-not be satisfactory for. the hmher grade of papers, nt any rate. Tn Canada, when the forests of spruce and fir are cut for paper making it is estimated that a mill svith an output of Iftf) tons per dav would have to cut about eight square miles of forest every year. T,i Australia tlici annual consumption of news print is about 60.000 tons, and Mr. C*<rm>y pointed out that lo meet such n demand a great deal more, than sixteen square miles of forest would mave to be cut out every year. We had nothing Jn Australia io compjarc with what the Canadians called forests, with their close growth nnd huge area, and even the ’Canadian estimate of eight sounre miles of forest for an output of 100 tons per day ho considered to bo low. Ar for the suggestion of ii'ing tho karri wa=te for paper making, though that might 1:0. suitable for making paper in a very small way. it would be utterly impossible to supply the demands of n big industry from such a source. Evon in tho Australian forests the large timber would bo of very little use, and f<«r paper making they would have to depend unon voting trees up to twelve years old. Ho did not suppose that anyone would suggest that we should make anything like n full supply of Australian paper here, though some news print could bo mnniifiict.nrod —always provided that the price made It n commercial nroixis'tion. Bnt there wore many big difficulties in the way of starting such an industry, one Itoing the cps-t of transport, which would be very high, unless river o were available, as they wore in Canada. Then there wns the question of Ihe provision of electric power. It would be impossible to supply water power unless thorn was in existence some big scheme similar to tho Kiewa scheme, and there were very few place's in Anstrnlia where they could expect anything of Um sort.
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Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 205, 25 May 1921, Page 5
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580PAPER-MAKING Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 205, 25 May 1921, Page 5
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