Walsh. — On titc Age of Pulp. 523 



Art. LIX. — The Age of Pulp: a SpeculoAion on the Future 

 of the Wood-fibre Industry. 



By the Eev. P. Walsh. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, 4th August, 1890.] 



Many ages have passed over the world, each of them preparing 

 the way for that wliich was to follow, and all in their turn 

 contributing to make it what it is. Poets have sung the 

 glories of the Golden Age, the history of the Stone and Bronze 

 Ages has been brought to light by the labours of the traveller 

 and the archaeologist, and our own experience and observation 

 have made us familiar with the marvels of the Age of Iron and 

 Steel. But another age has already dawned upon us, which, 

 for want of a better name, I will call " the Age of Pulj) ; " 

 and I hope that I shall be able to show that it bids fair ere 

 long to ecUpse all the ages that have gone before it. 



It is diflicult to supply a definition of the term I have em- 

 ployed which will be at once concise and descriptive. For 

 the purpose of this paper I will define pulp as " a metamorphic 

 compound formed by the concretion of particles of disintegrated 

 matter." In this sense concrete is pulp, felt is pulp, and 

 paper is pulp ; for in each of these substances all trace of the 

 original form — the grain of the stone, the staple of the wool, 

 and the disposition of the fibre of the vegetable matter — is 

 absent in the new compound, has been lost in the process of 

 manufacture. 



Fv^'-i this it will appear that the term may be very exten- 

 sively applied, and far more so now than in any other period 

 of the world's history ; in fact, almost every product of the 

 age is more or less characterized by the pulp idea. Om- litera- 

 ture, art, fashions in dress, are all pulp. The wisdom of the 

 ancients, the traditions of mediaeval times, classical and foreign 

 art-forms, Greek, Eoman, Gothic, and Oriental elements, are 

 all represented in the modern compounds. Even in language, 

 the old grannnars and foreign modes of speech are pounded 

 down, torn up, and mixed together to form material for the 

 verbal amalgam in which we express our thoughts. And, to 

 go even further, what are the nations and races of the present 

 day but pulj)? By colonization, by international intercourse, 

 the same process of disintegi-ation and concretion is taking 

 place in an ever-increasing ratio. In fact, in all departments 

 of life, in every plane of action — in physical, mental, and 

 moral; in political, social, and artistic — the great pulp-manu- 

 facture is going on as it never went on before. 



I think I have said enough to justify the title at the head 



