ZEALAND FLAX.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 208, 18 December 1869, Page 1 (Supplement)

ZEALAND FLAX.

Flax, judging from its value in the English market, should have received more consideration and attention from colonists in the islands than it has done. The weed that the New Zealand farmer burns down in order to clear his land—land that he afterwards crops with potatoes to sell at perhaps £lO per ton—the strong rope-like grass that the bullock driver gathers on the side of the track, and therewith safely lashes his load—the stringy reed that everywhere in New Zealand serves a thousand purposes of usefulness, and that may, nearly everywhere, be gathered for nothing, is here in London, “in the straw,” and without dressing of any kind, readily saleable at from £24 to £25 per ton, and when dressed up into a fashion fit for rope-makers, worth £4O per ton, and easily saleable in any quantity at the price. If the Maori can make nets and bags and blankets out of the Phortnium ienax —if a sample of the grass can be so manipulated that a fabric equal to ordinary French cambric can be woven from it, it ought not to be difficult for the settler to so prepare it, and in such quantity as to make it a permanent and valuable merchantable commodity. Should the expense of dressing prove too great a difficulty, the straw, simply dried and packed, might be made a valuable article of export, and rope makers here would gladly purchase it. If the dressing is undertaken on the island it is worth doing well. Of two staples sold since the outgoing of the last mail, both equal in original quality, one from Auckland, well dressed and bright in color, brought £4O per ton against £3O obtained for a badly dressed sample from Otago. If the necessary dressing cannot be* done in New Zealand without destroying the quality of the staple, better send it in a state of straw, but in any case it would be found a profitable transaction. For a long time its merits were decried by English rope-makers, but they bought it nevertheless whenever they had opportunity. It was mixed with Manilla hemp and nothing said about it, but now a large manufacturer announces as one of the staples of his trade, “ New Zealand rope,” and professes to make it from New Zealand flax, and so ho doubtless does so far as the supply will enable him to do so. No doubt the “ gummy” substance with which the fibre of the Phortnium tenax is so strongly coated is difficult to remove, but Messrs. Devitt and Hett, the colonial brokers here, are just now in treaty for the perfecting of a machine that is expected to change all this. In the meantime there are few better shipments from New Zealand to the English market than the so-called flax. The fibre of the ordinary “Tussock,” when beaten with wooden mallets upon beds of the same material, makes a capital article of commerce in England, the uses of which are not yet precisely defined to the outside public. It is saleable at from £45 to £SO per ton. —Home News, Oct. 8,