Wpfll )>UL! JNfUSTRY

Grey River Argus, 12 April 1911, Page 8

Wpfll )>UL! JNfUSTRY

■■■■■■ j» : ..^ :<■ In response to\ a request by the Department, the High Commissioner, London, is obtaining! information re-■g-arding- the. establishment of a woodpulp industry 1 for white-paper making.- In a recent memorandum the 1 High Commissioner transmits particulars supplied by the Albert Reed Company, of London, which operates large pulp-mills in {Newfoundland. <It is Stated that probaibly the minimumcapacity mill that could be calculated on to give any satisfactory return in New Zealand would be one to make about 300 tons of paper, per week. iThe mill would require a site where there was 5000-horse power, :and where the wood oould be got with very small cost of transit. Such a mill would cost, on an average site in the .United States /about £200,000. This includes the plant for mechanical pulp, sulphite pulp and paper machinery and plant' The estimate is based on> a production of ordin-? ary newspaper. iFor . the manufacture of better r quality paper the cost of the mill wooUld be considerably increased, and more power required. Owing to the necessity for importing machinery from distant countries, the cost Of the plant would be correspondingly igreater in-New Zealand. The wood chiefly pulped in America is spruce; in Scandinavia it is termed "white-pine." The Avoods are comparatively free from turpentine, which characteristic is the principle requirement for pulping purposes. Assuming that .NeW Zealand has' suitable "woods, that labour would cost about the same as in the /United States, and ( that coal for fuel is available at a. cost not, exceeding £1 per ton, .then ordinary news paper might be expected to cost about £8 per ton to produce at the mill-site. About 25cwts of coal per ton of paper is used in the process of manufacture. Doubt is expressed whether conditions in New Zealand would allow of the establishment of a pulp paper industry able to ; compete with paper supplied, from countries where the, industry is developed on a large scale, with immense resources. Some of the finest wood->alp paper mills in/the world halve been recently established in (Newfoundland, which is found to possess ' the natural resources and conditions' for the industry in a high degree. The Harmsworth •publishing concern of London, for 'instance, has recently •expended 'the sum of £1,200,000 in the purchase of forest areas in the interior of the island, the construction and equipment of mills, building of railway lines, and waterside terminals, and generally in the" creation of their paper-rhilling enterprise. An interest ing advantage claimed for the Newfoundland forests i? that they reproduce themselves very, rapidly after being- cut out or burned over, 'and can be used again in the manufacture of paper and pulp within thirty 3 r ears. -