Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1911. THE WOOD-PULP INDUSTRY.
In response to a request by the Department' of Agriculture, the High Commissioner, London, is obtaining information regarding 'the establishment of a wood-pulp industry for white-paper making. In a recent memorandum the High Commissioner transmits particulars supplied by the Albert Reed Company, of London, which operates large pulp-mills in Newfoundland. It is stated that probably the minimum-capacity mill that could be calculated on to give any satisfactory return in New Zealand would be one to make about 300 tons' of paper per week. The mill would require a site where there was 5000-horse-power,and where the wood could l>e got with very small cost of transit. Such a mill would cost, on a good average site in the United, States, about £200,000. This includes the plant for mechanical pulp, sulphite pulp, and paper machinery and plant. The estimate is basedi on a production of ordinary news paper. For the manufacture of better quality paper the cost of the mill would be considerably increased, and more power required. Owing to the> necessity of importing machinery from distant countries, the cost of th© plant would be correspondingly greater ia New Zealand. The wood chiefly pulped ia A'nferlea is sprucej Iff 6can<l£ navia it is termed "white-pine." These woods are comparatively free from turpentine, which characteristic is the principal requirement for pulping purposes. Assuming that New Zealand has suitable woods, that labour would cost about the same as in the United States, and that coal
for fuel is available at a cost not exceeding £1 per ton, then ordinary news paper might be expected to cost pbout £8 per ton to produce at, the mill-site. About 25 cwt. of coal per ton of paper is used in the prooess of manufacture. Doubt is expressed whether conditions in New Zealand would allow of the establishment of a pulp paper industry able to compete with paper supplied from countries where the industry is developed on a large scale, with immense resources. Some of the finest woodpulp paper mills in the world have been recently established tin iNewfauiidland, which is found to possess the natural resources and conditions for the industry in a high degree. The Harmsworth publishing concern of London, for instance, has recently expended the sum of £1,200,000 in the purchase of forest-are'as in the interior of the island, the construction and equipping of mills, building of railway lines and waterside terminals, and generally in the creation of their paper-milling enterprise. An interesting advantage claimed for the : Newfoundland forests is that they reproduce themselves very rapidly after being cut out or burned over, and can be used again in the manufacture of paper and pulp within thirty years.
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10208, 8 April 1911, Page 4
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454Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1911. THE WOOD-PULP INDUSTRY. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10208, 8 April 1911, Page 4
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