THE MATAURA PAPER MILL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 771, 26 January 1877, Page 3

THE MATAURA PAPER MILL.

Should anyone within the next decade write a typographical account'of New ■Zealand, ha will probably describe the town of Mataura thus: A thriving inland town, built on the eas'ern and western hanks of the Mataura, which is there characterised by a picturesque waterfall. The town is justly celebrated for the manufacture of many varieties of paper, and as being the site of one of the first paper mills erected in New Zealand. Our (Southland Times) reporter paid a casual visit to the Mataura paper mill on Monday last, and was much impressed with the progress which had been made and with the work which was being done. The outs and ins of the mill gave the idea of a properly worked and well managed establishment. In a large yard outside there were three hundred tons of the long, yellow, wavy native grass which grows in profusion by the sides of rivers and on the ranges in Otago and Southland. We also saw numerous piles and bales of waste paper, and old ropes and rags, but the working manufacturer informed us that the native grass was his favorite material. The way in which it is utilised is this lb is cut on the flats and ranges and conveyed to the mill by men who work by the piece. Then, having been'taken inside the building and the bundles untied, it is thrown into a large boiler, where it is boiled till it becomes quite soft. After this it is taken ' from the boiler and thrown into a large cold | water vat, where it undergoes a cleansing process and is cut up. From the vat it passes on through some intermediate stages of preparation, and emerges in the form of pure pulp in a largo tub or tank on the ground floor, there being in the vessel a revolving roller with an exterior formed apparently of vire and covered with calico for j the purpose of attracting and collecting the I pulp, which is thereby transferred to wet blankets, of which there are a seines stretched onrolieVs and worked by a steamengine. The pu 1 p passes in succession from wet to moist, from moist to dry, and from dry blankets to hot rollers, from the last of which it passes, dry smooth, and beautifully finished, on to a receiving lack, and is thence removed by hand to a bench where it is formed into parcels ready for the market The chemicals used in the manufacture are few and simple. The mill is worked by means of a water-wheel of eighty-horse power, and a twelve-horse power steam engine. The building is largq, and consists of an upper artd a lower floor, stone foundations, wooden walls, and an iron roof. Altogether the Mataura Mill has the appearance of an establishment which is prosperineand is destined to prosper.