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Technology Transfer and Local Innovation: Pulp and Paper Manufacturing in New Zealand, c.1860 to c.1960

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Technological Transformation in the Global Pulp and Paper Industry 1800–2018

Part of the book series: World Forests ((WFSE,volume 23))

Abstract

This chapter surveys the evolution of papermaking in New Zealand over roughly one century, specifically from the 1860s when paper was manufactured from rags and waste paper until about 1960, by which time there were pulp and paper mills in operation serving local and export markets. A distinctive feature of the New Zealand scene was that the wood pulp was sourced from exotic plantations largely comprised of Pinus radiate , a Californian species previously untried for papermaking . Ownership of the plantation forest estate was divided between the state and private companies. The state had long planned for a pulp and paper industry and sought to shape its structure but ultimately the companies were able to develop separate processing schemes. Both state and industry depended upon pulping trials conducted in the United States, while the technological solution to pulping sappy southern pines in the US also gave hope that Pinius radiata would be suitable for newsprint . Other organisational models and technical assistance came, however, from Scandinavia , although some technical problems were solved locally. The establishment of a pulp and paper industry in New Zealand became the life ’s work of a small number of individuals working both in the Forest Service and for private companies, and many conflicts occurred along the way.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The technical challenge with flax was to remove the vegetable matter without damaging its fibres. Attempts to do this continued into the twentieth century. The US Bureau of Standards, for instance, undertook papermaking tests on flax at the behest of the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research in 1928. As late as 1938 New Zealand Pulping Mills was established, but it was still unable solve the problem of mechanically stripping the flax without breaking the long fibres (NZ Flax pulping Plant 1941).

  2. 2.

    NZ flax is not botanically related to the linen flax of Europe .

  3. 3.

    Despite many difficulties the company survived to be acquired by New Zealand Forest Products in 1960.

  4. 4.

    The amendment was largely concerned with leasehold arrangements for crown settlers and the specific section concerning the pulp and paper reserves was not debated. The clause presumably at least had the support of Robert McNab , the Minister of Agriculture and Lands. Regulations were promulgated in the New Zealand Gazette in 1909 (Wood-Pulp Regulations under “The Land Act 1908”; NZ Gazette, 8 April 1909, pp. 970–971).

  5. 5.

    From 1921 to 1948 this department which had national responsibilities was known as the State Forest Service and from 1949, until it was dissolved in 1987, as the New Zealand Forest Service . Forest Service has been used throughout this chapter for convenience.

  6. 6.

    Until the 1930s locally it where often described as Pinus insignis . Monterey Pine, Radiata Pine, or more rarely Remarkable Pine were the other popular synonyms.

  7. 7.

    In the southern US paperboard production was relatively unaffected by the cyclic fluctuations of newspaper production (Oden 1977). WBM officials had visited the Madison Forest Products Laboratory and other plants and kept themselves apprised of US developments. Even if the connection was tenuous it does suggest WBM were looking to minimise the risk involved by keeping away from more price volatile paper products.

  8. 8.

    WBM was eventually able to source thinnings from other afforestation companies.

  9. 9.

    The other two were paua shell manufacturing - paua being a shellfish endemic to NZ, other related species are known as abalone, and pneumatic tyre and tube manufacturing.

  10. 10.

    This places the actions of NZPM in not pursuing the Pinus radiata pulp mill option in perspective—it was beyond their financial reach, they had nothing like the asset base of the NZFP .

  11. 11.

    NZFP did ultimately acquire the company in 1960.

  12. 12.

    Somewhat earlier the Director of Forests had been emphatic that, ‘The view of this service is that saw logs will continue to remain for many decades the basic product of exotic forests’. (McGavock [Director of Forests] to Boas [Chief of Division of Forest Products CSIRO ] 1933).

  13. 13.

    A 40,000 ton plant was double the size of the company proposals.

  14. 14.

    Kurth was correct in his assessment—in 1950 the Coosa River Newsprint Company opened in Alabama and in 1954 Bowater Paper Corporation commenced operations in Tennessee (Oden 1977).

  15. 15.

    The ‘Tasman’ name is derived from that of Dutchman Abel Tasman was the first European to sight and map part of the NZ coast line in 1642.

  16. 16.

    Southland Paper Mill executives did not share Fletcher’s confidence and expressed the view to Entrican that ‘we cannot doubt Merritt-Chapman and Scott’s ability as constructors and designers of Kraft mills; however we have a considerable doubt as to their ability to design properly a newspaper mill’ (Wortham to Entrican 1952). This knowledge probably added to the later difficulties between Entrican and Fletcher’s over the management of TPP .

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Michael Roche

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  1. Michael Roche
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Correspondence to Michael Roche .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Timo Särkkä

  2. Department of Economic History, Institutions, Policy and World Economy, The Research Centre in Economics and Economic History ‘Antoni de Capmany’, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Miquel Gutiérrez-Poch

  3. Department of History, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada

    Mark Kuhlberg

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Roche, M. (2018). Technology Transfer and Local Innovation: Pulp and Paper Manufacturing in New Zealand, c.1860 to c.1960. In: Särkkä, T., Gutiérrez-Poch, M., Kuhlberg, M. (eds) Technological Transformation in the Global Pulp and Paper Industry 1800–2018. World Forests, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94962-8_9

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