FLAX DRESSING MACHINERY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1319, 3 November 1914, Page 2

FLAX DRESSING MACHINERY.

Thirty-three competed for the bonus offered by the Government for an improved method of dressing phormium, and the Committee have recommended that the following bonuses be paid : George Craw, IJnton, patent stripper slips machine, ; Suttie and' Wynyard, Auckland, automatic scutcher, “a great Improvement on the present method,” recommended patentees be granted ,£750, conditionally on their reducing their royalty proposed at 3s 6d per ton to 23 per ton ; Robinson and Wanklyn, Foxton, tail clipping machine, free of royalty, (price plus cost of installation), B. H, Murphy, Waikanae, process for washiug aud softening tails, which “gives great promise of being a benefit to the industry,’' recommended that bonus of ,£SOO be given to inventor to enable him to perfect his machine. The Commission recommended that from the applicants, the following be granted an opportunity of giving a further demonstration :—Messrs H. J. Boeken, Suttie aud Wynyard, G. C, Entwistle, T. H. Smith, Maddern Bros., W. Earnshaw, H. B. Murphy and P. B. Domine. Various chemical processes were inspected, but the fibre so treated was not equal to that produced under existing conditions. 01 the several mechanical flax dressing machines, none was capable of displacing the present method of stripping. Several scutching machines were examined aud what was seen was sufficient to prove that the principle of automatic scutching was solved. The Commissioners strongly disapprove of the principle adopted by many applicants in asking Jbr royalties in addition to high prices for their machines. The Commissioners also suggested that the bonuses should be reinstated for another 18 mouths to enable inventors to perfect their patents aud also allow of further inventions from overseas being tested.