USES FOR FLAX

Hokitika Guardian, 2 March 1931, Page 6

USES FOR FLAX

(Auckland “Star.”) The “Star” paragraph mentioning technical chemist’s experiments with our Pliormium to mix as material tor paper prompts one to suggest that we may yet find almost as many uses for the native flax as the South Sea Islanders do for their coconut tree. 1 lax was New Zealand’s earliest item ol manufacture and export; the trade in “muka,” or dressed pliormium, goes back to the early part of last century. It made the finest and strongest cordage, and was much in demand in the British Navy. Sails wore made of it :i century ago. The .Japanese have made an imitation silk-from it, a I act which will not surprise - anyone who has felt the soft, silky texture of the finest kinds of Maori dressed and woven garments. It may yet be discovered that we can manufacture Iron) it a clothing material that will be a usable substitute lor linen. I'or kits and baskets. as everyone knows, there is nothing to surpass this most plentiful of New Zealand plants. liven the roots have their uses in the .Maori kainga ; thev are medicinally valuable, when iKiiicd for the juice, and our chemists may discover that" a great remedy ean he manufactured from this part of the plant.

Tim opinion of tho southern scientific investigator quoted, Air Coghill, that a great industry could he built up in the manufacture of pliormium fibre into sacking is certainly worth most careful investigation by those concerned in the flaxmilling business. If it can lie proved possible to manufacture sacking at. a cost which will compare favourably with mat ol tho imported article it. will mean a permanent and profitable field lor the flax owners and millers with a certain and growi lie local market. New Zealand sends out an enormous amount ol money for articles' that can fie manufactured locally, and anything that will reduce this needless outgo of cash is to lie .welcomed. The only question is whether our millers will be able to compote with tho cheap-labour Indian jute for woolpacks and corn sacks and t | u . like. If they can—with a necessary protective tariff—there is a high-ly-promising future for the New Zealand flaxfields, and every effort should be made to establish such a business. Perhaps if this were a poorer country less blessed with food and clothing products needed in the world’s markets greater trouble would have been taken long ago to develop tlm native resources of tlie land. If instead of being a New Zealander the Pliormium tenax grew wild in vast quaint*.'' in, say, Czeebo-Slovakia. the utmost endeavours would have been made to bring it before the world and to discover new uses for it. It might well have been made tlie chief product of a country. One lesson of the present depression in the products on which we chiefly rely for income is that the more sources of earnings we have the better. Nothing should be negelected that will increase the list of our saleable products and the list of their uses. —J.C.