ansport, and the high freightage will always render this
material too expensive for the European market (considering always its
very ordinary quality)--L10 per ton at the very least; while "Sparto
grass" (Lygaeum spartum, Loeffl.), [Paper-making materials.] which
was imported some few years since in considerable quantities for
the purpose of paper-making, costs in London only L5 per ton. [231]
The jute (Corchurus casularis) coffee-sacks supply another cheap paper
material. These serve in the fabrication of strong brown packing paper,
as the fiber will not stand bleaching. According to P. Symmonds,
the United States in recent years have largely used bamboo. The rind
of the Adansonia digitata also yields an extremely good material;
in particular, paper made entirely from New Zealand flax deserves
consideration, being, by virtue of its superior toughness, eminently
suited for "bill paper."

[Preferability of discarded cloth.] It must not be overlooked that, in
the manufacture of paper, worn linen and cotton rags are the very best
materials that can be employed, and make the best paper. Moreover,
they are generally to be had for the trouble of collecting them,
after they have once covered the cost of their production in the
form of clothing materials; when, through being frayed by repeated
washings, they undergo a preparation which particularly adapts them
to the purpose of paper-making.

[Increasing use of wood and straw.] The more paper-making progresses,
the more are ligneous fibers brought forward, particularly wood and
straw, which produce really good pastes; all the raw materials being
imported from a distance. That England takes so much sparto is easily
explained by the fact that she has very little straw of her own,
for most of the grain consumed by her is received from abroad in a
granulated condition.

CHAPTER XXV

[Tobacco revenue.] Of all the productions of the country tobacco is
the most important, so far (at least) as concerns the Government,
which have the cultivation of this plant, its manipulation, and sale,
the subjects of an extensive and strictly guarded monopoly, and derives
a very considerable portion of the public revenue therefrom. [232]
As to the objections raised against this revenue on the score of its
being opposed to justice and morality, many other sources of revenue in
the colonial budget might be condemned (such as the poll-tax, gaming
and opium licenses, the brandy trade, and the sa