WORTH INVESTIGATION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 570, 29 June 1933, Page 4

WORTH INVESTIGATION

The following extract, which is taken from the Inland Printer, perhaps the most widely circulated printers' trade journal pub- i lished in the United States, is j particularly interesting and ap- I pears to warrant further investigation on the part of the New Zealand Government, and those interested in afforestation in the Dominion. The reports run: — Ear,ly in April the Soperton (Georigia) News issued an edition on newsprint made from slash pine in the laboratories headed by Dr. Charles W. Her-ty. Printers stated that it took l the ink as well as other newsprint, some believing it showed up better. j Hope of appreciahle savings on the j cost of newsprint is held out by Dr. Herty, head of the pulp and paper researeh division of the Georgia Departonent of Forestry. Dr. Herty, former president of the American Ghemical Society, disclosed his' findings at the West New York section meeting. White newsprint h'as been made in the research plant from slash pine only seven years old, he saad. It is a thirty-ponnd -paper with a hnrsting strength of ten to twelve ponnds a square inch, while most newsprint is thirty-two-pound, with a bursting strength of six to tenj pounds. "Publishers will receive 6 2-3 per cent. more sh'eets to the ton when the new paper is commercially available," Dn. Herty stated, "and save the same amount on postage. In addition, they will have less trouhle from breaks and tearing in printing and folding." - Spruce, now used in making newsprint, talces fifty years to mature. The seven-year period for the slash i pine makes reforrestation for makj ing of newsprint commercially profitI -ahle. Dr. Herty added that 90 per j cent. of all Soufhern pine is suitable for newsprint. The remarkably rapid growth attributed to this species of pine olfers tremendous possibilities if it is found that it can be grown in New Zealand. Coming from a reliable source, the report may be accepted as substantially correct and it appears from the facts given, that the manufacture of newsprint from the slash pine has proved a commercial possibility and satisfactory to the trade. The sevenyear period required by the slash pine offers a much more rapid return to investors than can be expected from other afforestation schemes and this being so, the development of plantations

of these trees in New Zealand would lay the foundations of a potentially invaluable newsprint | supply. The report appears to be worthy of immediate investigation by the New Zealand forestry authorities with a view to exploring the possibilities which it opens up. Rotorua, as the chief afforestation district of the Dominion, would have a particular interest in the results of such an investigation.