20 



The material should this material is being tried, consign- 



be imported in the ' 



form of "hair-stock." m ents of holf-stoclc be imported, as the 

 reduction of the fibre to this stage will be less costly, 

 I imagine, than the manufacture of rough paper, 

 which, at the best, would have again to be reduced 

 to pulp before it would be of any service in the 

 European paper market. 



23. I come now to the fourth of the five samples 

 ^StSStSgS. of paper, referred to in paragraph 20. 

 This sample was manufactured from the fibre of 

 Streblus aspera, an evergreen, from thirty to forty 

 feet high, with clear stem from four to ten feet in 

 length, and two and a-half to three feet in circum- 

 ference. It is indigenous to Burma, and grows up 

 to an elevation of 2000 feet. Not being able to give 

 the exact cost of production, all I can do at present 

 is to recommend it to fair trial, on the grounds that 

 the paper made from it has been pronounced by ex- 

 perienced paper-makers of " excellent quality "; that 

 it rapidly reproduces itself; that it abounds in the 

 forests ; and that it is capable of being reproduced 

 at a nominal cost, requiring neither artificial irriga- 

 tion, nor any other expensive mode of treatment. 



24 The remaining sample (the fifth) was made 

 recommended by of the inner bark of Broussonetia papyri- 



the Author, 



pyrifem. etia *"' f em ) a g 00 ^ coppicing plant capable of 

 being propagated from cuttings, and indigenous to 

 Burma. This sample has given universal satis- 

 faction, and all experts in the paper trade unani- 

 mously acknowledge that the Broussonetia papyri- 

 /era is known to produce a first-class paper material, 



