The £10,000.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 11 July 1890, Page 2

The £10,000.

WHO WILL TRY TO GET IT . Ml 1 J. G. Wilson has Icird'y furnished us with some particu'ars as to the lik^'y claimants for the proposed £10,000 reward for an improved method of dressing the I'horminm Tows.. An inventor in Canterbury hopes to put in Green flax at one end of a machine and tales out the fibre almost ready for the press at the therend, Of course the process is kept quite secret, hut it is said that it has cost £2000 already A still better result is reported from Blenheim. An inventor there professes by a chemical process to be able to strip all or any portion of the 'eaf, and leaves the whole of the fibre with as good a gloss, aud in a eood condition as the native dressed flax Mr Wi s n's informant saw a leaf with about, half of it (th« butt end) left as it was cut, and the other end showing the fibre in a beantifu'ly dressed condition. Mr Wilson is endeavouring- to got a loaf put through by this process and promises to send it up for those interested to soe. It is further claimed for this process that in addition to its successful dressing it will reduce the cost one half. Fibre dressed in this manner would not on'v be used as hemp, but it woulrijbe n «d for fabric pur poses and erea f e a competition whMi we lia^e not yet experienced. We only hope that, all this may be so. when, as Mr Wilson says, the success of our best industry would be secured. O'her items of infunnation that Mr Wilson hn3 gathered in conversation with tho-e interred in the trade, he sums up thus: — 1 The leavH.s should ho picked so as to make 3 length 5 ?. The stripper sot for pnch sort •nd each class kept xttpai'iite. It is said thnt the extra cost of doing this will bo repaid by the extra returns. 2. The bales should not be heavier tlmn 2£ cwt. 3 Thar <he hanks should b* much sranl'er. The hemp going to Eng land in Inrge hanks has to be split before being u-ed, and this cause? the hanks to b p tangled,