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Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 26, 19 October 1848, Page 3

The third meeting of the New Zealand Advancement Society [will no one discover for it a more elegant title?] was held on Friday evening last. We observed some little while ago, that it was not to be expected that any tangible or

practical results would be immediately derived from the sittings of the society ; that its object was rather to acquire early knowledge of the resources which we might be ultimately obliged to fall back upon, and to ascertain, if possible, the true state and prospects of the colony ; a matter which it is at no time easy to form a just conception of, and much less now while the enormous expenditure of the mother country upon us stimulates the colony into a state of preternatural activity, being, in truth, no more than a sort of dram, the effects of which must be presently followed by a corresponding lassitude. But we were agreeably surprised to learn, from a letter which was handed in by Mr. Merriman, that the last meeting had already borne good fruit, and that a suggestion which was there made had since been taken up in earnest. The writer of the letter, owing to the frequent communication with China of his own connexions in New South Wales, has peculiar private facilities towards the pushing forward, and early realisation of the project •, with which he combines a practical knowledge of the subject itself. Although aware that no great outlay of capital would be required, we still had no idea that such a trifle as that which is named would have been sufficient to make a commencement. The following is the communication received : (To the Editor of the Anglo-Maori Warder.) Auckland, October 12, 1848. Sir,—l was much pleased, on reading the report of the proceedings of the Advancement Society, to see fish curing» with a view to creating an available export, so ably recommended. I perfectly concur in opiniou with the compiler of the report, and have long been of opinion, that in the hands of competent persons, it would not only prove a paving speculation, but that the article would soon form a couMilemble iUai in our ®*poftß. - When at Port Nicholson, about 4 years since, Isold to Captain Paden, of the Brigand, for the use of his crew, (chit-fly Chinamen ) 16 hhds. of mullet, at per pound —and had the pleasure of hearingfiom the Captain, when in Sydney, that they turned out exceedingly well. The description of fish, seasons, best mode of fishing and curing are 60 well explained and pointed eut in the report before men;ion d, that I can add noth ing: but would suggest, if no individual be sufficiently enterprising to at empt it single-handed, the propiiety of forming a company, with a capital of £3i)o, in £b or £lO sharts,—a sum which would, in my Opinion, prove amply sufficient to carry out the scheme. I have only to add—that so desirous am I to see the ex; erimeut tried, and so certain do I feel of its ultimate success, that I would, with great pleasure, become a shareholder, and would pledge myself to do all I could to forward so desirable an object. I shall have much pleasue in attending your nest meeting. I am, Hyam Joseph. Messrs. J. A. Smith, Woodhouse, Whytlaw, and M'Vay, then undertook to pay special attention to the establishment of a fishery, and hoped to be able to announce at the next meeting that something definite had been actually agreed to. Mr. Whytlaw produced a whisp of New Zealand flax, from which the gum had been extracted by a process of his own discovery. He observed that it had been put through a very coarse hackle only, made of sail-maker's needles. Mr. Robertson, of the rope-walk, pronounced it very beautiful, and observed that it would be worth from £SO to £6O a ton at home. Mr. Whytlaw then read the following report :—• This most important indigenous pioduction of New

Zealand has attracted much attention from the discovery of the country until the present day, the beauty and strength of the fibre inducing many to hope that it might be introduced, with great advantage, into o»r home manufactures. Accordingly, a variety of methods have been attempted to render it available for that purpose, but hitherto the success attending BUch laudable efforts has been comparatively trifling, and consequently the demand in the British market very limited. Of late, however, more sanguine hop*s have beea entertained of ultimate success, the prodac ions of Mr. Donlan, of London, and of our own enterprising townsman, Mr. Robertson, have attracted the notice of influential parties, and give promise of more general attention being directed to the subject. It would serve no useful end to enter into any detail respec'ing the methods which have been tried with so little apparent success, to render the article more suitable for the purposes of home manufacture. The chief, if not the only obstacles to the attainment of|that object have bten the following:—First, the want of a simple, efficient, and expeditious method ot separating the fibre from the leaf, as a substitute for the tedious process adopted by the natives; and secondly, ignorance of any solvent for discharging the gummy substance which adhetes to the fibre, and renders it hard, wiry, and totally unfit for being spun into fine yarns. With regard to the first ©f these difficulties, it is to be observed, that as the proportion of fibre to the mass of useless vegetable matter with which it is surrounded am justs only to from 15 to 20 per cent., it is evident

that much useless labour must be required to carry the material to any distance from where it grows, if it is to be cleaned by stationary machinery ; and this, I believe, has been the serious drawback to all such methods hitherto attempted. The flax has had to be taken to th« mill; 85 per cent, of useless matter has not only had to be carried thither, but afterwards that again has had to be removed out of the Jway, which labour has no doubt added greatly both to the expense and tediousness of the operation. To obviate this evil, it would be necessary to have an apparatus of so simple a construction, that instead of the flax being taken to the mill, the mill would be taken to the flax, and by the aid of not more than a couple of labourers moved from place to place, as occasion required. I do not think that any insurmountable difficulties lie in the way of such a simple apparatus being constructed; and it might be well for this society to c insider whether some inducement might not be held out to the ingenious mechanics of the colony, to turn their talents towards the invention of such a machine; aud it is to be hoped that Government would lend its aid to promote such a desirable object.

With regard to the second, and what T believe to have been the most serious obstacle to the general use of the New Zealand flax in our home manufactures, namely, the presence of the gummy substance with wliich the fibre is impregnated, I am happy to state that this difficulty has been entirely overcome, a« the sampie I have already laid before the society, and that now produced, satisfactorily show. It would be wrong to assert that the same object has never before been accomplished, for we have seen many most beautiful samples, entirely free from gum; but unfortunately they have been but samples prepared for show, or elaborated by a process similar to the tedious method adopted by the natives for their fine mats* which of coarse would totally defeat the design of producing a marketable article. The method by which the samples I have shown to the society have been prepared is exceedingly simple, so that by an apparatus of moderate extent, attended by not more than three efficient labourers, one ton per clay could be easily prepared ; that is, I take up the article as it comes from the natives, valued it may be from £\2 to .£ls per ton, and by a process, which is of the simplest nature, render the same article worth at least double that amount* It will n©t, of course, be expected that I should explain my method of discharging the gum from the fibre, without injury to the latter; but I may mention that the materials necessary for effecting the improvement are all found in ihe colony, and need not be imported from abroad. The principal drawback to the carrying out of this discovery is the limited and very uncertain supplies of the raw material brought into the market. There has been of late years not more, perhaps» than 100 tons per annum brought to Auckland, and of that quantity four-filths are required for local manufactures, so that but a trifling quantity is left for exportation. Until, therefore, some methed be discovered for increasing the supply of the article capable of being so improved, there is but little inducement to commence operations. W tb regard to the varieties of the Phormium Tenax, their comparative values, and the native methods of cu'tivating and preparing them, I shall leave Mr. Johnston to furnish information to the society* as he has had the best opportunities of getting a knowledge of them, and has promised us a paper on the subject. I shall, therefore, confine my remarks, in conclusion, to the importance of our European settlers turning vshdr attention to the cultivation ot this valuable plan . 1.1 appears that a root or stool of flax, when at maturity, will occupy not more than two square yards of ground, ihit on a single acre 2420 plants may be grown. In eighteen months after the plants are put into the ground, and at the end of every twelve months afterwards, they will be ready for cutting ; and from each of these plants six pounds weight of cle tn fibre will be ob ained, that is, upwards of seven tons per acre, which, at the present price of the article, would yield the gross return of nearly O- After the land has been first prepared and pi mted the expense of keeping it in oider would be very trifling, it being only necessary to free it from weeds. The expense of cleaning or separating the fibre at the rate formerly Mentioned, namely, of two men or a man and a boy, cleaning 1 rwt. per day, would not exceed, if by native labour, £3 per ton, so that a large profit would be real zed, even should the present prices become considerably lower by the additional supplv brought into the market. There can be no doubt as to the beneficial effects wh'ch a proper method of cultivation would have, not only in improving the quality of the article, bat in rendering the process of cleaning mu<:h more easy. Samples, I believe, wiil be laid before you to-night by Mr. Robertson, which will at once demonstrate the correctness of this opinion. It may be supposed, that by so great a quantity of produce being annually tak*n from the soil, the latter would become soon exhausted, and the plants degenerate. But, as in the case of European fl ix, the fibre of which.it is now well known, is nourished principally by the atmosphere, so that when the refuse is thrown back upon the land litile or no exhaustion takes pla> e so, should the method proposed of cleaning the flax here, in the field, be adopted, we have good reason to believe that the soil would be but little, if at all, deteriorated. The present and prospective state of this colony afford strong grounds for urging the consideration of this subject upon the community ; and we trust that the able and talented conductors of our public journals will not fail to do so The state of Europe also holds out the prospect of our home manufacturers looking to new markets for the supply of an article which we could furnish in such abundance*

Mr. Robertson then produced two samples of New Zealand flax, taken from plants of the same variety, with this difference, that the one had been transplanted and cultivated, while the other had been left w T here it originally grew. He insisted strongly upon the important change in quality which the simple transplantation produced, the effect of which had been long since discovered by the natives themselves. The palpable difference between the specimens —the one of which was worth £4 per ton more than the other—amply bore out his opinion. He recommended that the Russian hemp should be introduced into this country, observing that the Russian cordage sells here from 60s. to 70s. per cwt., and that after the rope is worn out for rigging, it is teazed up and sold for oakum, at about 405., while the New Zealand flax was useless for that purpose —a point, nevertheless, upon which there seemed to be some difference of opinion,—but that it would still be worth about £l4 per ton at home for paper making. He stated that he had held a conversation with his Excellency, who had bidden him write in a letter on that subject to the Government; promising at the

same time to send home for seed, and to set 1 out a couple of acres in the Domain for making the experiment. The Governor likewise expressed himself willing to forward the purposes of the Society by any means that lay in his power. The cultivation of European flax in this country was the next subject that came before the meeting, which it was agreed to enter more fully into on a future occasion. The results ef twenty-six various experiments, taken by the Rev. A. G. Purchas, whom we believe to be one of the best chemists in the colony, on a yellow dye which he had obtained from the wood of the Puriri tree, were examined, and much admired. He had found it a fast colour and easily worked. The pieces of stuffs on which the experiments were made are deposited' with the other samples of New Zealand productions, ticketed, with mentions attached of the processes by which the different shades were produced. They had been mostly struck with potass, or with sulphate of iron. It may be mentioned that blacky red, and crimsonj are the colours which would best repay the trouble of search. Mr. Cleghorn is entitled to the thanks of all who are interested in Botanical science for having awakened our attention to the fact, that many of the indigenous plants of the country are disappearing fast. The following are the observations which he handed in. Shortly after my arrival in New Zealand my attention was arrested by the great variety and number of plants, indigenous to this country, which had never been introduced into Britain. More recently I have been astonished at the rapidity with which many of the more rare varieties have disappeared, owing to the depasturing of stock, burning, cultivation, and other changes that the surface of the count* y is rapidly undergoing. I can clearly see, that if speedy means be not used for their preservation, many of the rarer species, some of which might possibly supply important links in the great chain of vegetal ion. will soon be totally lost to science. We need only call to mind the number and variety that were once to he met with in the reserve for the Government Domain, on the various volcanic mountains in this immediate neighbourhood, in the Tamaki and Epsom districts, a* likewise on the North Shore, more notably about the lake, where few are now to be found, but which in other localities have never yet been seen at all. For I believe that in this country all the individuals of a species are sometimes contained within a circle of very limited extent; possibly in consequence of peculiarities of soil, or of other causes as yet unasc rtaincd. At the first settlement of this colony a piece of ground, well adapted in every respect for the reception and cul ivation of whatever plants might be introduced from other countries, was selected and laid out; but by a strange oversight, a matter which I consider to have been of much greater importance, the preservation of rare species of indigenous plants, was left totally unattended to. Now if such plants were collected, before it be yet too ) ■•; p> and planted in soil and situation adapted to their growth ; a record kept of their natural locality—win re found, and by whom ; a great future disgrace to the colony—for I will call it no les —might be avoided. I may add, likewise, that the chances of sending specimens alive to England, would be infinitely increased by the previous cultivation they would have undergone. In New Zealand we have been very remiss. Let us only look to the Cape of Good Hope, New South Walcg, and Van Diemen's Land, to see how much has been done for botanical science; whilst in this country, which possesses such peculiar inteiest from the complete originality of its herbal, even that which has been already contributed, is mainly through the exertions, not of the colonists themselves, but of passers r>y and travellers.

If the Government be disposed to further the objects of the Society, a practical demonstration of its good will would be given by granting a plot of ground, in a convenient situation, for a botanical garden ; than which nothing would be more conducive to fixing an interest in the subject of which Mr. Cleghorn has made mention. We would suggest that it should be placed under the management of the Auckland Horticultural Society* Mr. Coolaghan has since promised to obtain from the Roman Catholic Mission a return of the produce of their vineyards, of their location, of the quantity of wine produced, of its value, of the age of the vines, and whatever general information can be supplied. The next meeting was fixed for this day week, at the same time and place: furniture woods, Phormium Tenax, and the establishment of a fishery, being agreed to as subjects of discussion.

The following, paragraph, is from the Cityarticle of the Times, May sth : Some specimens of a preparation of the Phormium tenax, or New Zealand flax, have lately been submitted to the New Z a and Company, wirranting a hope that the difficulties which have hitherto prevented the general use of this article, arising from the costliness of the various modes of dressing hitherto attempted, may at length have been surmounted. Several of the leading hemp and fl-tx brokers of London testify to the efficacy of the new process, which is alleged to be inexpensive, while, at the same time, it involves litt e waste of material. The inventor is Mr. E. W. Trent, ef Smith's hemp works, Old Ford.