The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1917. FLAX AXD PAPER MANUFACTURE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1671, 6 February 1917, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1917. FLAX AXD PAPER MANUFACTURE.

WITH the pronounced shortage of paper that exists at the present time, some remarks made by the Hon. G. W. Russell were very opportune. “I think we are importing something like 400,000 pounds’ worth of paper every year,” said the Minister. “The only use, I believe, that is made of the waste paper in New Zealand is in two mills, where a quantity, a very small quanitity, of our waste paper is turned into brown wrapping paper. The whole of the rest is sent to our destructors and goes up in smoke. My own opinion is that scientific men ought to be able to discover some method by which the ink could be extracted from the papers after we have read them, and the paper then remade in our own country. This would provide employment for our own people, and turn what is now waste product into a profitable industry, saving this comitry hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.” What the Minister says in respect to waste paper is true, but we cau tell him something more. At every tlaxmill in the district tons of waste product from the stripper and scutcher is wasted, yet this “waste” could be converted into the finest and strongest paper — a much better 'article than that manufactured from wood pulp. We directed the attention of this waste, product to a representative of a large paper manufacturing firm, and while he agreed that it could be (

utilised for paper he expressed the opinion that labour conditions in New Zealand would make the manufacture too costly. We are of opinion, however, that if some miller started paper manufacture as a side line it would pay handsomely. The collective waste product could be obtained for next to nothing, and there is sufficient to guarantee a large animal output of paper, for which there is a good demand.