TEXTILE FLAX.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1379, 27 March 1915, Page 3

TEXTILE FLAX.

PROCESS ACQUIRED BY NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT.

Negotiations beuveen the inventor of the process lor convening flax into a textile and tbe New Zealand Government have progressed to such a tangible stage that the secret is now shared by 1 ' the Minister of Agriculture (Hon. W. F. Masssy) who has entered into an agreement on behalf of the New Zealand Government, to pay the inventor, Mr S. Brown, of Auckland, a substantial price for the right, and also to pay certain royalties based on a scale of pro dnotion. Mr Walter J. Pish, ot Raetibi, who is a near relative of Mr Brown, has just returned to Raetihi, after interviewing the Premier at Wellington, and attending a practical dc aiou of the process, as part ot the negotiations leading to the transaction. That tbe demonstration was convincing may be safely interred from the speedy agreement arrived at, and the monetary consideration involved, the amount ot which may not he advisable to slate at present. Neither is it definitely known yet whether the Government intends to conflne its enterprise to the Stale or allow flaxmillers into the secret, carte blanche. In any case a great fillip to flax production and the Introduction of a new manufacturing industry are bound to result. It is even suggested in connection with the recent rise in flax, that the market has already been affected.—WaimarinoCall,