MATERIALS FOR PAPER MAKING.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 345, 21 July 1875, Page 3

MATERIALS FOR PAPER MAKING.

{Daily Southern Cross of June 22.) A sample of dried pulp, the product of New Zealand flax (phormium tenax) manufactured by a process discovered and applied experimentally by Mr De L'Eau of this city, lies before us. As pulp fitted for the manufacture of paper, we have seen nothing superior. Many years ago, and at different times, pulp made from New Zealand flax was introduced into England. So far back as 1833, and again in 1837 and 1838, and once more in 1854 English patents were taken out for the manufacture of paper from New Zealand flax. Upwards of twenty years ago bricks of pulp made from New Zealand flax were introduced into Great Britain for the purpose of being manufactured into paper; but the paper duty had not then been abolished, and as these bricks were deemed by the Customs to be partly manufactured paper, and were consequently subjected to a duty of the exaction of this duty put a complete stop on the enterprise, promising as it was. The evil effect of failures in ventures of this kind is that it throws discredit on the project, and it is a long time before anyone will touch the subject again. The cause of failure is little accounted for, the fact is sufficient ; and even after the rei moval of the cause as in the case of the sub-

sequent abolition of the import duty on paper the memory of the failure rises like a spectre which deters capital from approaching. This has been the case with the New Zealand flax pulp, and the fact is greatly to be regretted. The pulp bricks which were sent to England some score of years since were of an ashen grey colour, and although allowed by competent judges to be Well fitted for making excellent paper, were no more to be compared to the pulp produced by Mr De L'Eau's process, which is a secret, than is Russian hemp comparable with the fine silky fibre of fine Flemish flax. Mr De L'Eau's bricks are pure white, the fibre is strong and fine, and are well-fitted to take the place of linen rags as a basis for the best paper that Pirie and Co ever produced. We undertake to say that if Mr De L'Eau, with a couple of his bricks of white pulp in hand, were in London now, he could raise a company with any amount of money to supply the market. It is shown to be worth in England £25 to £3O per ton, and these figures are given guardedly, and merely on the evidence, not of a large quantity to test it fully, but of a very small sample, merely to show what it is. The demand for paper is steadily increasing, and. the whole world is being drawn on to find a plentiful material for its manufacture. In New Zealand, by careful use, there are available fields of native flax which could supply this pulp at a price with which it would, we believe, be impossible for linen rags to compete. Once a trade of this kind were fairly established its success is certain. The consumption of paper all over the world is such as to produce a steadfast and increasing market for any quantity New Zealand could supply. Of all the samples of this kind of pulp that we have seen during the last dozen years in New Zealand, none has approached in purity and excellence those which Mr De L'Eau has shown. The supply of the raw material is ample; by ordinary care in cutting and using the flax plants it would be practically inexhaustible ; it may be had cheaply, and we believe the pulp can be produced considerably under half the price which it would realise in England. Even in Sydney it is stated to be worth at least £25. There never was a time like the present, when a better opportunity offered for establishing an industry here connected with the paper trade, which, even on a small scale, will yield a profitable export worth from £30,000 to £50,000 a year. Mr De L'Eau has given long and careful attention to the subject; he is acquainted with the processes of pulp and papermaking on a large scale, and for the sake of his discovery, as well as for the trade of the place, and the growth of a manufacture which will always command a market while people read and write, and while books and newspapers exist, we hope to see some speedy action taken in what we believe contains a magnificent return for any amount of labor and capital such as the working of the flax in this direction would undoubtedly produce.