Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 1870.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 815, 22 August 1870, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 1870.

N"ot the least in importance of the papers presented to the Houses of the General Assembly during the present session is the "Report of the Flax Commissioners on the means employed in the preparation of the New Zealand flax," It is a voluminous document, extending, with its appendices, o\er 58 pages of foolscap, and probably contains all chat is known respecting the growth and culture, the manufacture and preparation of the article ; as also a description, as far as can be given without digrams, of the several machines invented and used in its preparat on. We may say that the whole subject is treated in an exhaustive manner, and we would strongly advise every one who is at all interested in the success of what appears the most promising native industry of this Colony to procure and study this valuable report. It is of course impossible to give anything like a digest of such a paper within the limits of a brief leading article; but we may mention that besides the conclusions as to the be.-t method of preparing the article for the market arrived at by the Commissioners, the report contains in its appendices no less than nineteen documents bearing upon the subject, amongst which are the actual experiments and observations of Dr Hector and Dr. Skey; communications from several persons who have devoted much time and study to the subject; reviews of works published in connexion with it; papers read before the Philosophical Institute of Canter bury, the Auckland Institute, the Nelson Scientific Association, and others supplied to some of the lead ing newspapers of the Colony. There is a descriptive classification

of the various machines and processes ( for the separation of the fibre, as registered under the several patents granted in the Colony, and a tabulated result of experiments respecting the relative strength of the fibre, ranged under the heads of "Maori dressed," "chemically prepared,'' and " machine dressed," as compared with similar experiments on Russian hemp and Manila, by Dr. Hector. We need scarcely say that several of these papers contain much that is of the greatest possible interest and value, especially to those engaged in the preparation of the material as a branch of industry.