New Process for Treating Flax.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 195, 3 February 1905, Page 2

New Process for Treating Flax.

The discovery of a new process for tbe manufacture of hemp from tbe New Zealand phormium tenix which will at ones prove cheaper and better tban the present system in vogue will be welcomed by many in this district, which is one of the best flexmilling districts in the colony. A Mrs Jacob, residing in Germany, has experimented on New Zealand flax, and with the assistance of a leading chemist in Brammem declares she has discovered a process that improves tbe present process and produces a finer and more valuable article, tbe gum being entirely extracted and the finished product resembling silk. Dr Bockstrow is introducing the process to New Zealand millers, and at tbe recent conference held at Falmerston that gentleman was present and ex--hibited samples of the finished article. He estimated that tbe fibre would be

worth from £o to £8 more tban tbe linen hemp grown at Home, and that though the process was partly chemical it did not injure the fibre in any way. The process was briefly described as follows: The flax was first placed in boiling water, with chemicals, where it was left for an hour to an hour and a-balf, then rolled to remove tbe fleshy part of it; washed in another chemical preparation to remove gum, put through a wringer, and then scutched damp. The cost would be about £5 per fen, and there would be no offal. A syndicate has arranged to give the process a trial and report to a future meeting. The result will be looked forward to with interest .by flax millers all over tbe colony.