FLAX DRESSING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1077, 2 December 1911, Page 4

FLAX DRESSING.

PARTICULARS OF THE GOVERNMENT BONUS.

We are informed by Messrs Higgs and O’Donnell, International Patent Attorneys, Wellington, that the offer of a bonus by the New Zealand Government for an improvement in the treatment of New Zealand flax or in the utilisation of the by-products thereof, is confirmed. The Government is willing to pay ,£12,000 for a substantial improvement in any of the following : (x). A process of extracting and dressing the fibre of New Zealand h mp (phormium tenax), whether by machinery or otherwise, whereby there shall be obtained (a) a greatly improved quality of fibre marketable at a higher price, or (b) a substantial reduction in the cost of producing the fibre. (2) Any such process that shall produce a fibre fit for use in manufactures other than rope and twine spinning. (3) Any such process that shall render unnecessary any of the present operations involved in extracting and dressing the fibre, such as stripping, paddocking or scutching. (4) Any improved method of separating the green envelope or the coloured matter from the green leaf ol the phormium plant so as to produce a strong white fibre the whole of which can be saved with little or no tow to waste.

(5) Any means whereby the byproducts obtained during the processes of extracting and dressing New Zealand hemp fibre —such as gum, dye, stripper-slips, tow dust, or waste vegetable matter —shall be converted into a marketable commodity.

The applicant must slate in his applications what he will expect lor any patent rights which he may possess.