FOREST PRODUCTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 572, 26 January 1929, Page 7

FOREST PRODUCTS

bright future in NEW ZEALAND RESULTS OF TESTS That New Zealand may become, in time, a large exporter of forest produce, including pulp and paper, is a conclusion reached by Mr. A. R. Entrican. engineer for the State Forest Service, in a report presented yesterday to the forestry section of the Science Congress. Altogether, 15 New Zealand-grown woods were examined, including three native softwoods, four introduced softwoods and eight native hardwoods, of the softwoods, in sign is pine and kahikatea yielded strong, but somewhat creamy ground wood pulps, sulphite pulps of fairly good colour, and strong sulphate pulps for wrapping, etc. Kimu, ‘too. yielded by the sulphite, sulphate an d soda processes a good grade of • Kraft ‘ stock. Wrapping papers, etc.. 0 f medium strength <•• n be manufactured from the remaining softwoods— Austrian pine, Corsican pine and European larch. Tawa yielded a wider variety of pulps than any of the other hardwoods tested. •'Under existing conditions, it is true, there are few, if any, localities in New Zealand where the necessary raw « iterial may be procured either in qu entity or at such a price as would enable a pulp anil paper mill to compete with foreign producers, lie wrote. “Liut. ! as foreign wood supplies become scarce i large volumes of intermediate products | will become available from the man- ! made forests in various regions. These ; will create favourable conditions for the operation of all classes of pulp mills, whose main source of raw materia! requires to be in the form of round products HIGH CONSUMPTION The local production of domestic requirements in such important comnio- ! dities as pulp and paper is in itself a> matter of national economic import- ! a nee. The average annual importation of pulp and paper products into New 1 Zealand is valued at over £ 1.000.000 representing over 40,000 tons of paper, including 22,000 tons of newsprint! 5,000 tons of other printings, over 5,000 tons of cardboard, etc., 2,000 tons’ of kraft wrappings. 2,000 tons of writings, etc., 3.000 tons of wood pulp and the remainder miscellaneous papers, etc. The local production of paper is about 3,000 tons, principally wrappings, and the total annual consumption, therefore, about 44,000, equivalent to tlOlb per capita. This is the fourth highest per capita consumption in the world, being exceeded only in North America! Great Britain and Australia. "Tawa yielded a sulphite pulp which proved useful with suitable processing for a new type of newsprint. With somewhat different cooking conditions, tawa also yielded an easily bleacliable pulp suitable for book stock. All five softwoods, rimu, Corsican pine, Austrian pine, insignis pine and European larch, were reduced without difficulty by the sulphate process, rimu producing the best pulp, with the remaining woods following in the order 1 given. Pulped by the semi-kraft process. rimu, insignis pine and larch , yielded much darker and somewhat inferior pulps, which, however, appeared promising for lower grades of kraft 1 papers and for boards, etc. Tawa soda ( pulps, although somewhat weak, i possess excellent bulk and will serve ; lor book and similar grades of paper." \