PAPER PULP.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 November 1916, Page 3

PAPER PULP.

MADE FPiOH NOXIOUS WEEDS. The Sydney correspondent of the Wellington Post, writing under date October IS, stated:—Experiments in the manufacture of paper and the prodr tion of dyes, which are being carried out not far from Cairns, in North Queensland, are considerable attention. The investigator is Mr. Joseph Campbell, M.A., M.1.M.E., who, after graduating at Sydney University, won the Bclmore medal for geology and agricultural chemistry, the University Gold .Medal for agricultural chemistry, and was afterwards University Lecturer on Geology, Chemistry, and Mineralogy So he is "no charlatan. The experiments have been privately made, but the sue cess that has attended them is considered justification for the enquiries now being made by the Government. The authorities arj particularly anxious to produce in Australia the huge quantities of paper now imported. Mr Campbell appears to pin his faith to the longhlady, or lalang grass, of which there are millions of tons in Queensland, and which will produce three crops a year. He claims—and shown the finished article in proof of it—that paper made from lalang is only 10 per cent, inferior to that made from esparto grass, and esparto pulp is the best known. Mr. Campbell has obtained 30 per cent, of first-class paper pulp from the Chinese Inirr and the Queensland heinp, anil he has been most successful v/ith banana fibre. Banana trees, after bearing, are simply a nuisance; but Mv. Campbell says they can be turned into an excellent pulp and made profitable. Pulp from which bank notes and similar official paper can be manufactured has been made from the screw pine, or pandanus. which lias a prolific growth in all low-lying land; and from the latann, which is regarded as a pest there, can be made a good wrapping paper. "While experimenting with these various plants," says Mr. Campbell, "I discovered that some of them contain valuable natural dyeing material. I do.voted attention to it, with the result that I found two plants which hold,the basic dye, and. with the addition of mordants, are capable of producing all the colors most required. Every one can be made perfectly fast against light end alkaline solution "