Melbourne botanic Garden,
23. Nov. 1866.
Sir Henry
I venture to submit to your Excellency some small samples of paper prepared from indigenous vegetable substances in the laboratory of my department. Though I am aware of the enlightened interest evinced by your Excellency in the resources of this country, I should have refrained from approaching with these results formally, had not his Grace the Duke of Newcastle some years ago desired, that investigations should be made in this colony into the adaptation of any extensively available fibrous substances adapted for the manufacture of paper.1 Since the expression of the wish of his Grace I have instituted a variety of experiments in the direction indicated, and having recently been able to construct a laboratory and the needful apparatus for the manufacture of commercial or technological articles from vegetable rawmaterial, I have both for the Intercolonial and Paris Exhibition2 a series of such articles prepared, as are likely to give extensive employment to our population and to add to the wealth of the country. Among these articles are paper of various kinds, for which in the bark of our Eucalyptus trees or in some fibrous sedges and grasses abundantly occurring, not only in this but also in the other Australian Colonies actually millions of tons of raw material are acccessible. The samples submitted are not bleached, nor elaborately prepared, nor saturated with any substance adding to their firmness, it being in this instance merely necessary to show in a simple form the nature of the crude paper obtainable from the pulp of native fibres. The Society of arts3 and other authorities conversant with technological industries would at once be able to pronounce even from rough specimens such as with very limited appliances are prepared on this occasion, how far the admixture of such fibres would aid the manufacture of papers from rags or how far an importation of such fibrous substances could be effected in the manner of the Esparto of Spain. There can however not be the slightest doubt, I venture to affirm, that the fibres used on this occasion and many others on which I intend to report more fully, could here locally be turned to the greatest advantage for the fabrication of all the rougher kinds of papers. It has also been my aim to point out, how very many poor families might find locations of prosperity in the wide tracts of our salubrious but as yet unoccupied ranges by devoting their attention and their labour for the object of procuring the raw material so vastly available for manufactures, not merely such as those of paper, but also of tars, acetic acid, oils, dye-material and other substances constantly needed for arts and industry. In this sense I was laboring, when I prepared for the exhibition now the series of tars &c of such trees as now for many thousands of squaremiles occupy perfectly uninhabited tracts of the country, and I was gratified to observe, that the results in regard to yield and quality obtained by these experiments are most encouraging, and are likley to indicate paths of prosperity for numerous inhabitants of these fine tracts of her Majestys Australian great territory.
I have the honor to remain your Excellencys profoundly obedient servant
Ferd. Mueller,
M.D., F.R.S.
His Excellency the honorable Sir Henry Manners-Sutton., K.C.B.,
Governor of Victoria &c &c &c4
Manners-Sutton transmitted a copy of this letter as an enclosure to Despatch 39 of 18 December 1866, commenting that he was 'incompetent to form an opinion with respect to the quality of the materials', or on the likely success of manufacture. He thought it probable that 'some special notice ... will be taken in the awards of the Jurors, or in the reports of the Sub Committees' of the specimens displayed at the Intercolonial Exhibition. Other specimens were transmitted with Despatch 41 of 20 December 1866. See M to H. Manners-Sutton, 15 December 1866 and 23 December 1866.
A report from the Association of Paper Manufacturers of Great Britain and Ireland, dated London 20 April 1867 and signed by John Evans FRS and Thomas Roytledge, stated that there was a great difference in the strength and commercial value between the samples. It was doubtful whether some of the vegetable products would be useful because of lack of strength and length of fibre. Others, however were well adapted to paper manufacture, namely Phormium tenax, Cyperus vaginatus, Dichelachne crinita, Stipa semibarbata, Eucalyptus obliqua, and Xanthorrhoea minor. Phormium tenax was already well known, and commanded a high price for ropemaking and spinning, which precluded its use in papermaking 'at least in this country … when clean is worth about £25 per ton' and made £35 when flax and Hemp prices were high; and for papermaking its value in the raw state would not exceed £15 per ton. Few if any of the other plants were superior to 'Esparto or Spanish Grass' and some inferior, either in strength or ease of cleaning and bleaching. Esparto sold in British Ports for £4 to £5 (never more than £6) per ton. Since all raw fibres bulk very large 'there appears no probability that any of the materials prepared by Dr Mueller (with the exception of Phormium tenax) could be imported into this country except at a loss, as the mere freight would probably amount to more than the commercial value of the fibre. Whether the manufacture of paper could be carried on in the Colony of Victoria depended on local conditions and they could therefore offer no opinion on this. In conclusion they expressed 'high approbation of the careful manner in which Dr Mueller has prepared his specimens and the skill he has evinced in the selection of the materials for them' (National Archives, London, CO 309/86, Victoria, original correspondence, Offices (part 2) and individuals, vol. 4, 1867, Victoria 4238, f. 81).
A list of samples with comments on each was appended to the report. For example: '4. Cyperus vaginatus: Apparently a useful material, with a fibre superior to that of Spanish Esparto, but the pulp from which the sample was made seems to have been overboiled' and '15. Lepidosperma gladiatium: a material well adapted for unbleached or whitey-brown papers but it appears very doubtful if it would bleach'.
The report and a copy of the reply from the Committee of Privy Council for Trade was included in Despatch 27 from the Colonial Ofice to Manners-Sutton on 6 May 1867.
Please cite as “FVM-66-11-23,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/66-11-23