THE NATIVE FLAX.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 788, 19 May 1870, Page 4

THE NATIVE FLAX.

(From the New Zealand Herald.) The present depreciation in the value pf New Zealand flax in the home market affords additional reason why we should 1 receive with more than Ordinary interest the Interim Report of the Flax Commissioners, in course pf publication in this journal. Anything that will tend to improve the quality of the raw material, to render more efficient the machinery used ior its manufacture, and to cheapen and facilitate that manufacture, will assist materially in qualifying the consequences of such fluctuations in the marketas have recently taken place, and cause increased production to make up fordecreased value. Scarcely have we succeeded in combatting the fallacious idea as to its being a dangerously inflammable article of freight than there would appear to have arisen in the minds of manufacturers at home a doubt as to whether New Zealand flax is perfectly adapted for the purposes for which it is required—one of the largest rope manu factoring Arms in the North of England having considered that the artiple is. a failure as an untarred rope, but that when tarred it will command a limited market at a low figure. This fame firm, however, is ? it also appears, a large buyer, and has already consumed over 100 tons of the raw material. This, together with the large shipments that have been raa le, has run down the prices, so that they now range from £l9 to £3l per ion, the latter being the value of very fine, the former of only part dressed samples. If we take the mean between the two, we shall still have a price that will pay producers and exporters, even with no more than our present knowledge, means, and appliances for preparing the article for market. But it is first to increase these adjuncts to our power of extending and cheapening production that we look upon such a report as that before us as of incalculable value to to the colony, and tq those engaged in every branch of the manufacture pf flax in New Zealand. The evidence taken seems to have been varied and extensive, and has been collated and published in a simple and thoroughly intelligible form ; and all the information afforded is divided under three headings—growth, manufacture, and nuachineiy. To the first only is it our intention to allude on the present occasion. We have long since pointed out to settlers of this province that flax must take its place as a part of the p i dinary produce of every farm, and f he report of the Commissioners fully bears put the correctness of these yipws. The wild growth of flax canpo,t long continue to be relied upon; pqr, even it could be so, does it seem fo. us, from the evidence afforded by the report, advisable that it should 44 SQ- As it is, flax is flax,

there can be no classification of the different kinds which vary so much in quality. It mav be that the bulk of the leaves used are of the least "valuable sorts, or that there is a mixture of good and bad kinds. There the flax is, and it must be taken as it stands. But when this plant cotuea to be cultivated as a crop, and planted to a large -extent, only such kinds will be used as are known to be the best. Our flax plantations will consist only of the Tapoto or Tihove, and other kinds of flax of similar quality, while the Kauhangaroa, the Warariki, the Harakeke-Maori, and other less valuable kinds will be rejected. May we nor feel justified in attributing to the mixed material of which the present article exported must necessarily consist, the very cause which is ren dering the fibre less acceptable than it might be to rope manufacturers at home? The Tihore gives a strong and lustrous fibre, but the three de scriptions mentioned before as valuable are easily, says the report, “ broken with a jerk, the fibre being tender and brittle, and are never dressed by tire natives, except for kits, matting, But we may also reasonably expect that with careful cultivation, and by attending to the crossing of different varieties, the changing the soil, and other methods adopted for the improvement of the plant, flax, may, like every other product of the soil, be gieatly altered for the better.

It would be strange if this plant alone should not, by a few years’ attentive culture, become as largely improved as other plants have been by the hand of man, and it would indeed be difficult to say to what extent of perfection we may not yet see it brought. The planting of it on an extensive and systematic plan is however a and the improvement we speak of will follow as a natural consequence of the application of the intelligence and observation with which the work will be attended. We have heard it stated, and we believe the estimate is a pretty correct one, that it will take a hundred acres of flax to sup ply the raw material for the consumption of an ordinary flax mill, such as the average of those being erected in the various parts of the country, and if this be the case it can teadily be understood how important it" is that something more than the natural supply should be looked forward to. The, report shows the ease with which the work may be undertaken, “Flax,” it says, “ will grow in almost any soil, but soil is not material except for quality.” This statement we can readily believe, for we have seen on I tivated land, well drained, which would grow magnificent flax. That flax will grow from seed has been abundantly proved, but it is also as certain that it will be more to the advantage of the grower to transplant at once the young shoots, or plants into which the roots of the growing plants may be divided. A year, at least, says the report, and we belie- e, more may be saved by adopting the latter plan. One bush of flax, alone, will divide into from twenty to fifty such roots for transplanting, and if planted, as recommended, in rows, four feet apart each way, about one thousand such plants will be required for an acre, of land. The natives, we may state, do not use manure, though they prepare the land with great care. Those, however, who may intend to make the improvement of the plant their study—and cer tainly fortunes will be made by the production of improved kinds of Phormium tenax, as have been made by that of new kinds of seed, grain, and vegetables —will doubtless, turn their attention to the cultivation of ihe plant from seed. To these, that portion of the report w hich recommends the procuring of seed from Wanganui, Taranaki, and other places, will be interesting; and it seems to have been not altogether unthought of by the Commissioners that improvements, such as we have indicated, might be accomplish eel when they made use of the following remark, viz,:—“ It is difficult to name the best kinds of flax for cultivation, as, different tribes and localities have different names for the variety. Most probably

[.soil, climate, and cultivation ha? (sic) more to do do with this than is generally believed," To enter fully into detail of the valuable information contained even under the first heading of the report is beyond oui nu-ans in a single article. We shall, however, have more to say upon the matter,.as well as upon the two other portions of the report on which, as yet, we have not touched; and we recommend a careful perusal of the report itself to all those interested in the production and manufacture of what will yet undoubtedly be the staple export of this part of New Zealand,