CORRESPONDENCE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5406, 3 April 1929, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

FLAXMILLING AT PAEROA. £To the Editor.! Sir, —1 read with interest your article, under the above heading, which appeared in your issue of the 27th. Tiie company undertaking the piojcct should indeed be congratu-. luted. One is giyeg to wonder why, in these days of modern industrial de-, velopmcnt and advanced scientific research, that the "people of New Zealand have not long since endeavoured to develop to their fullest Extent the wonderful resources that nature has so abundantly besto.wed on the Dominion. Surqly New Zealanders know sufficient of the universal utility of Phormium Tenax to place coinfldeinc.e in its modern (fetvelopment. Your article stimulates remitlscences, and as one looks back through the avenues of. time a comireflling force makes one realise that intertwined with cur ccfuntry’s history is the universal uses of flax. In years long gpnei the Maori knew its value. Did they not weave picturesque dress from hand-dressed harakeke ? Were not their ma.ts a work of art ? The strength of their hand-made fishing lines a.- thing of wonder. Did not the cunningly eon-, trived hinaki catch and hold with safety the. slippery, eel ? And 1 until quits recent years was no t the Maori kit a household word ? With the coming of the pakeha flax los,t none, of its value, and many and varied were the uses the -pioneer made of it. The flax-stick (kprad(li) was used! to make a float or punt; to stick the peas; to stake up the flowers and plants; to add kepnness to sharpedged tocls ; to strop the razor; and to thrash the unruly kids. , The. blade had still more uqes. It served ip place of twine to sow the bags of chaff, com, and potatoes ; it took the place of the broken hinge of gate fastener 1 ; it did service- for the missing rein, leg-rope, or tie-rope—no set. of harness was replete unless repaired with it. It providcjl the finishing touch to the up-to-date bullocky and teamster; the small boy found unending joy in the whips he made from it; it played its -part in thatching stack and whares; it was used to string the Onions, to hogntie the nigs and calves on market day; by providing a speedy substitute for thq broken brace or bootlace it saved the raul of many, a hurried man; it dW yeo-naft. servjqe to tholse who felt that no honest day’s work could, be accomplished without the “boyands.” Nor did the abcj've applications exhaust its uses. Tha’ gum, too, has-played its part. With it mother .sealed the season's jam and honey ; with it the chil-. di’en-repaired their broken dolls andf ornaments; father used it to mend his'broken clay ; with it the family adhered the damaged stamp andlabels ; and last, of all .when claims pinched out, the) hardy old fossicker secured his swag with flax swag straps and hit out for fields afresh. With a knowledge of its past value, I am anxious to sec depicted on the screen, at the free screening on Thursday evening, the modern method's of flax development. HARRY HARAKEKE.