39 



cissima, grows wild upon both sides of the Mediterranean for 

 about five degrees of longitude. It comes on the European 

 side from the east coast of Spain, principally from Carthagena, 

 Almeria, Aquelas, &c., where it has long been used for 

 making mats, ropes, soles of sandals, and the Iberian scourges 

 of Horace (Epod. iv.) ; and it appears that any quantity of it 

 may be obtained from Algeria, where it is a most abundant 

 weed. It is white, and very tenacious in fibre ; and, after rags, 

 it is pronounced to be the best material yet discovered for the 

 making of paper. The favour in which it is held by the 

 British paper-maker may be gathered from the fact that be- 

 tween 65,000 and 70,000 tons of Esparto grass were imported 

 into England for paper-making purposes in the year 1866. 



This closes the information derived from the Economist and 

 the Quarterly Beview, — and here I should leave the subject 

 were I not desirous of associating with it some remarks on the 

 additional facilities likely to be afforded by the cultivation of 

 this grass for the establishment of a paper mill. 



At the present time, when there exists an earnest desire to 

 do something to ameliorate the condition of the forlorn 

 children who throng our streets, the introduction of a new 

 local industry, affording means of employment, must be 

 fraup-ht with great public advantage whether regarded in a 

 social, moral, or economical point of view. 



When in England, in 1862, I visited several of the principal 

 paper mills, for the purpose of gathering information as to the 

 best processes of manufacture that might possibly prove useful 

 in the event of this industry becoming established in 

 Tasmania. I had in view the existence here of certain 

 auxiliary means and appliances for this important object ; viz., 

 the great extent of water-power available along our creeks 

 and rivers ; the vocation given to the neglected and destitute 

 in our population for the collection of rags and old clothes 

 lying useless and worthless in almost every domicile, — and 

 which would hence acquire, however small, a certain commercial 

 value ; the utilising the labour to be found in our penal, 

 charitable, and kindred institutions in sorting and washing 

 and preparing the rags for the mill. I assume that the resort 

 to labour of this description should stop here, and that the 

 actual manufacture of paper should be taken up at this point 

 and be carried on in a separate and independent establishment, 

 whether by the Government as a really reproductive work, 

 employing the necessitous receiving eleemosynary relief from 

 the State, who would thus be made to contribute to their own 

 support, or by the agency of a public company influenced in 

 its formation by adequate material encouragement, it is foreign 



