THE USES OF FLAX

Hokitika Guardian, 28 November 1928, Page 7

THE USES OF FLAX

(Auckland Paper)

File late.-t report of the Department of Scientific and industrial Research iiiciiLinns mat tests are ill progress at tlie Massey Agricultural L'Dliegc to ascertain the iutluenee ot various processes on tlie tensile .strength of oui native flax. Experiments are also being made with regard to tlie using < • 'i sx ior various purposes besides tensi les.

One would have imagined that tin strength of our phonnium te.iax was well ascertained long ago. It is more than a century since the first series oi oiiieial tests were made and knowledge on the subject has been accumulating ever since. A hundred and ten years ago New Zealand llax received the approval of British naval experts as material for cordage. In 1818 there were experiments at the Chatham naval rop-:'yards which made il appear that lines .and twine from the New Zealand hemp bore little more than l wo-t birds' of tin* weight ol those made from Riga and Chile hemp. It was stated, however, that tlie specimens from .Maorilaml were too small for a correct judgment to be f-rnied as to their fitness lor cordage. Later experiments by the Royal Navy were more favourable to our (lax. Under the experts’ tests “the king’s rope” gave way under weights which phonnium tenax rope stood. Those experiments in 1821 and 1822 satisfactorily established the high quality of New Zealand’s product; it was found bettor than Russian hemp, “ft is amazing strong,” reported the captain of TI.M. sloop Shamrock at Spithoad in 1822, “for if broke a piece of Government rope that by our calculation ought to hold in weight one ton more than tlie New Zealand rope, and from my opinion there is not a stronger piece of rope in England than it is of tlie dimensions.”

In 1822 Cathcart Dempster, a London sail-cloth manufacturer, pronounced if a much better material for making ropes and sails than any Baltic hemp and flax he had seen. Even earlier than the last date mentioned it was found that excellent sailcloth could be made from the “muka” that was the Maoris’ earliest article of commerce. Ex-Governor King, of New South Wales, writing in ISO 7 on the subject of Australian and New Zealand productions. said that in 1801 some New Zealand hem]) seed (about hull a pint) was sown in New South Males. “It propagated and grew extremely luxuriant, (lie plant being eleven feet high and of a very superior staple. \ quantity of this was manufactured for different purposes; among which were a main and mizzen topsail, the greatest part of a haimsail and an awning, with other sails, etc., for tlie Buffalo (of the British Navy's which lasted most of the passage from New South M ales to this country (England) and can now he produced ns a sample of its goodness and s.rangth.’

There is a sti'-ge' 1 io-i in this historical reference that might well he gi veil consideration by the Phornniini Committee of our State "Research T)eparrmeut. it may hi- that the manufacture of sniloloili from flax would l- ( >lp to re ive tlie industry. Though the large sailing ships have passed out of being, there is still a great use for fabrics suitable for working into sailcloth. for yachts a-d the smaller merchant craft, and also for awnings anti tents. There is also the known fact that a good fine paper can be made from flax, f think it was the .Tapan(.«e who first made experiments. Tests are now being made in the United States in that direction. —J.C