Coconut Husk Paper

Experiments in Ceylon

FIRST report from Ceylon on research into the manufacture of pulp and paper from coconut husks states that results have proved more promising than was expected (says “Fiji Times” of Janu ary 3).

Mr. S. R. K. Menon. who has been carrying out this research during the last three months, says: “The problem is no longer whether paper can be made from husks or whether it can be a commer cial possibility, but how to construct the factory and organise the industry.”

Paper can be profitably manufactured only when there is mass production: but that does not mean that the mill must be immediately accessible to masses of raw material. There are many large paper mills in England, for instance, which work on paper-pulp brought to them from Scandinavia, Newfoundland, Canada, etc.

It is essential, however, that there should be an abundant supply of raw material at or near the port of shipment. It is difficult to see how the cost of gather ing and baling coconut husk, and trans porting it to the port of shipment, can be kept low enough, in the scattered Pacific Islands, to make it an economic proposition.

Mrs. G. Mirfield sailed for Rabaul, T.N.G., by the “Nankin” on February 11.