FLAX FOR PAPER

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 547, 9 July 1920, Page 3

FLAX FOR PAPER

THEORY OF THE SIXTIES. As long ago as 1800 the demand ■ for paper-making materials had ' made New Zealanders look about for sources ol "pulp" in the colo.ny, though the incentive was perhaps lather business enterprise than the heavy pressue of short supplies. Among some old newspapers recently secured by the City librarian (Mr H, Baillie) are copies 'of the Wellington Independent off June, 1860, says a recent Wellington Post. In one issue it is stated that New Zealand flax fibre had been made into excellent paper, and a profitable and unfailing market would be found for 1 flax pulp if the machinery could be set up. It is remarked that the ' small amount of capital in the country forbade all local speculation of sufficient magnitude. But an Eng- , lish company "might purchase a few I thousand acres of our swamp land at 1 fen shillings, and even turn the flax | in its wild state to most profitable 1 account. Such a company wou. l find a very profitable field for the trifling capital it would be called upon to invest." I Another issue of the same journal quoted from the New Zealand Ex- ] j aminer a comment upon the repeal ' of the paper duty as not without its important bearing on the interests of New Zealand. "Some years ago," ; it said, "when the Times (London) ' offered a reward for the discovery of a cheap substance for making I paper, it was discovered by some en- ! terprising individual that such a sub- ■ stance existed in New Zealand in great abundance, and might be obtained at a very small cost. It was however very bulky, so that the cheapest article became the dearest by the time it reached England. Through the ingenuity, however, of a colonist, the New Zealand fibre was reduced to a pulp and pressed into 'bricks,' available for paper-mak-ing, and the cost of transmission reduced to its minimum. It was, however, decided by the Customhouse officers that the pulp bricks were to all intents and purposes paper. What made the matter worse, they were foreign paper, which, as our readers are aware, is subjected to a far heavier duty. Another obstacle still remained in the shape of the Excise of - ficer, who, as soon as the 'bricks,' which had paid their duty, were converted into paper, was ready to come down with a demand for another duty on the manufactured article. Our readers will not, therefore, be surprised to learn that the New Zealand fibre, so well adapted as it is for the manufacture of the finest paper, has not yet been used. We trust, however, that by taking off the restrictions, the enterprise will again be entered upon, and this time with triumphant success."