WOOD-PULP INDUSTRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 320, 3 April 1928, Page 18

WOOD-PULP INDUSTRY

SHORTAGE IMMINENT ADDRESS TO ROTARY CLUB “A wood famine is in sight and in the near future there will be a great shortage throughout the world,” said Mr. C. H. Clinkard, of Rotorua, in an address on “Wood-Pulping and Unemployment” at the luncheon of the Auckland Rotary Club yesterday. There was a shortage of industries in New Zealand, said the speaker, and it was for those nearing the end of their industrial career to do something for the younger generation who were just leaving school and endeavouring to find employment. Wood-pulping offered one of the best opportunities. There were 2,000 different uses for the pulp including the manufacturing of paper, tanning extracts, explosives, artificial silk and gramophone records. New Zealand was importing pulp to the value of £1,500,000 and then there was unemployment. The consumption was increasing rapidly. As culture and industries increased, so the consumption of the pulp increased. Other countries had realised that a shortage of wood was imminent and had planted trees, while in New Zealand we were wasting the wood. There was a favourable outlook for the wood-pulping industry in the Dominion. Australia could not compete because soft woods could not be grown there. Canada, was the only competitor worth considering, but the advantage was with New Zealand. “The material is here,” concluded the speaker, “and it is for the people to use it.”