xliv Reports of Committees. 



use them for the purpose of making baskets and fishing nets. This 

 circumstance induced him to attempt to turn them to account for the 

 purpose of making paper. Accordingly, to test them, he sent a 

 quantity to England, where it was made into a useful paper. 



The Lepidosperma is perennial, and has been found in large 

 quantities growing most luxuriantly on the banks of the Murray and 

 several other parts of the Australian continent. 



The manufacturer in England who tried its paper-making qualities 

 reported " that there is no doubt whatever of its making good paper ; 

 but that the price, exact loss of weight, &c., can only be determined 

 by a continuous working of a large quantity." 



To prepare it for the market, it may either be cut down close to the 

 roots, the root being left to spring again. It is then left exposed to 

 the action of the night dews, and the hot sun in the day, and occa- 

 sionally turned over, until by this exposure the plant becomes 

 partially bleached. It is then cut up into short lengths in any suit- 

 able machine, such as a chaff-cutter, and afterwards bleached by 

 chloride of lime or any other of the well-known bleaching processes. 

 It contains a gummy matter, which it is of importance to free it 

 from. The material will then be in a fit state to be manufactured in 

 the same manner as any other fibrous material is converted into paper. 



The Lavatera pleheja is also an indigenous perennial plant, and 

 grows freely throughout South Australia, Victoria, and New iSouth 

 Wales. It may be obtained in considerable quantities along the 

 banks of the Murray and many of its tributaries, and is also found 

 scattered over various parts of the colony. The fact of its abounding 

 along the banks and in the marshes of a navigable river, such as the 

 Murray is, renders it highly probable that it may be made an article of 

 commerce. 



The surveyor of the Victorian Expedition reported that "it clothes 

 the banks of the Moriaminta Creek, and grows to an immense size 

 on nearly all the creeks out here" — that is, beyond the Darling. 



The treatment of this plant for the purpose of paper-making cor- 

 responds with that applied to the Lepidosperma gladiata. 



