PHORMIUM TENAX.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2250, 12 March 1921, Page 1

PHORMIUM TENAX.

THE NEW ZEALAND FIBRE INDUSTRY. (By Esmond H. Atkinson, Biological Laboratory, Wellington, in the N.Z. Journal of Agriculture.) I. HISTORICAL. The first account of phormium of which there is any record occurs in the journal kept by Cook of his voyage to the Southern Seas in 1768-71. After speaking of the paucity of useful plants in New Zealand other than indigenous timber trees, he writes (in March,

1770,) : “There is, however, a plant that serves the inhabitants instead of hemp or flax, which excels all that are put to the same purposes in other countries. Of this plant there are two sorts; the leaves of both resemble those of flags, but the flowers are smaller and their clusters more numerous; in one kind they are yellow, and in the other a deep red. [Judging by his remarks on the colour of the flowers, etc., the two sorts'mentioned by Cook pro- ! bably refer to the two species P. Tenax and I’. Colensoi.j Of the leaves of these plants with very little preparation they make their common apparel; and of these they also make their strings, lines, and cordage, for every purpose, which are so much stronger than anything we make with hemp that they will not bear a comparison. From the same plant, by another preparation, they draw long slender fibres which shine like silk, and are as white as snow; of these, which are also surprisingly strong, the finer cloths are made; and of the leaves, without any other preparation than splitting them into proper breadths and tying the strips together, they make their fishing nets, some of which, as I have before remarked, are of enormous size. A plant which, with such advantages, might be applied'to so many useful and important purposes would certainly be a great acquisition to England, where it would probably thrive with very little trouble, as it seems to be hardy, and to affect no particular soil, being found equally in hill and valley, in the driest mould and the deepest bogs; the bog, however, it seems to prefer, its near such places we observed it to be larger than elsewhere.” In his second voyage (1772-75) Cook records the plant from Norfolk Island, with' the remark that it appeared more luxuriant than in New Zealand; and in 1777 he gives a further account of its occurrence in this country.

Seeds were brought back to England by Banks, the botanist who accompanied Cook, but they tailed to grow. However, in 1789 lie brought back further seeds, from which the plant was successfully established at Kew and distributed from tlienee to many parts of Europe. These cultivated plants were almost certainly not Phormium tenax, but Phormium Colensoi.

Later on, Labillardiere, one of the naturalists accompanying the French expedition of 1791-92 sent out to search for the ill-fated Le Perouse, gave a more detailed account of the plant than had previously been published. Subsequent visitors to New Zealand soon discovered that its value was universally appreciated by the Maoris, who sometimes cultivated it beside then pas, and that, as well as employing the leaves in the various ways described by Cook, they used the gum which it exuded at the base of the leaf for food, and the flower-stalks for tinder and many other purposes, while the nectar was eaten by the children.

THE GENESIS OF THE FIBRE

INDUSTRY,

Before the end of the eighteenth century whalers had begun to visit New Zealand, traders from Sydney, N.S.W., followed them, and by 1828 a considerable trade existed in pliormium, fibre to the value of £50,000 being sold in Sydney alone between 1828 and 1832. One of the first shipments to England was in 1818, when CO tons, valued at £2,G00 were sent there from Syd-

Early in the nineteenth century experiments were carried out in the English dockyards with a view to ascertaining the suitability of phor-mium-fibre for ropes, etc., with results that were said to be satisfactory, though the evidence on this point was rather contradictory. The probable reason for this lay in the methods employed in preparing the fibre. Originally all that was exported was dressed by the Maoris by a process which produced fibre of the very best quality, but which was very slow and laborious. This original Maori process was imitated and modified by the whalers and traders, who for the most part weie unskilled and careless, with the re- * suit that a great deal of poor fibre

found its way on to. the market, In 1830, 1,062 tons of fibre were exported, of whiqli it was estimated that less than half was produced by the Maoris. It is recorded that a London merchant writing to his Sydney house in the same year urged the necessity of cleaning the fibre thoroughly, as -much that had reached England was so poor in quality that the rope-workers would not work it up, even at increased wages. In spite of this, phormium gradually established its reputation on. the English market, as is shown by the fact that while in 1820 it was scarcely possible to obtain £lO to £ls per ton for it, in 1820 it took precedence over Russian and Hungarian hemp at prices ranging from £3O to £4O per ton. The ease with which these great profits were made had the bad effect, however, of making the exporters think that any rubbish was sure of a ready sale in England, with the result that in a single year the price fell 50 per cent., and it was not until after 1870 that the export rose to its value of 1830, though other factors beside the slump in the English market were responsible for this.

in 1832 a manufactory was established in Grimsby, in Lincoln.'liire, for the production of articles

from the fibre, but for some unexplained reason it did not succeed. Failure also attended the efforts of another company floated in England in 1844, which sent out hand machines and workmen to Nelson. The machines proved quite inadequate for the work, and though thousands of pounds were spent and other machines tried the results were no better. It was thought that the failure in this ease was due to the fact that the fibre differed widely from any other on the market, and that it was not produced in sufficient quantities to build up a position for itself on its own merits. Although many tentative efforts were made from time to time to invent a process which should be capable of producing good-quality fibre in large quantities, nothing of any real practical importance was devised, and up to the year 1860 all fibre was hand-dressed. From 1832 to 1853 the statistics show a poor but fluctuating trade. From the Tatter year to 1860 the average annual value of the fibre exported was £2,500, reaching a maximum of £5,500 in 1855.

THE .MAORI WAR AND THE INTRODUCTION OF , MACHINERY.

The outbreak of the Maori War in 1860 prevented trade production by the Natives, except those norlh of Auckland, with the result that from 1800 to 1866 the value of the fibre exported averaged only £IBO per annum. The consequence of this was that renewed attention was directed to the necessity of discovering a quick and reliable process of preparing the fibre. The methods proposed up to this time consisted in crushing the leaves between rollers, and then boiling them in alkaline solutions and thoroughly washing the resulting fibre. In 1861 Messrs Purehas and Ninnis patented a machine which introduced percussion instead of rolling, and did away with the washing in alkaline solutions. This was an important step, as it resulted in the production of a fibre very similar to mauiUr in general appearance, and a* the supply of the latter was at this time very limited there was a rise in the value of phormium from £2l to £56 per ton, and up to £76 per ton in America during the Civil War.

From 1861 onwards many new types of machines for dressing phormimn were evolved, and in consequence the export of fibre increased rapidly. The yearly average value between 1860 and 1871 was £56,000, the highest figures being for 1870, when the value reached £132,578. Notwithstanding the apparent prosperity of the industry, the most contradictory opinions were held about phormimn in respect to the preparation of the fibre, its manufacture, and markets, and in 1869 and the following year Commissioners were appointed by the Government to inquire fully into the subject.

In 1871-72 the name of the fibre on the English market was altered from “New Zealand llax” to “New Zealand hem]),” with favourable results. The early years of this decade saw the greatest boom the industry had known, which reached its climax in 1873, when 300 mills, employing 3,200 hands and producing fibre of the value of £140,000 annuailv, were at work. 'But it .was short-lived, for in 1874 there began a depression which lasted for fifteen years.

Although the export figures for this period of prosperity look large, there was very little permanent capital in the industry, which was largely in the hands of men who were content to put up a rough, slipshod mill in a suitable locality,

THE NEW ZEALAND FIBRE INDUSTRY.

work out the .surrounding phorrniura areas, and when the supply was exhausted move on to a fresh place. Millers of this type were really the worst enemies of the industry, for their methods were finite reckless, everything being cut out regardless of its suitability, while most of them took no cognisance of the fact that the quality of the fibre obtained from different areas was liable to very great variation. The result of this was that the reputation gained by the fibre obtained from goodquality areas was often adversely affected by the appearance in the market of that obtained from poor quality areas. From 1890 for some years onward the industry was not in a flourishing state, and in 1891 it was reported to be almost at a standstill. A bonus of £1,750 for improvement in fibre-production, together with a further one of £250 for suggestions as to the utilisation of the by-products, was offered by the Government, but though the offer remained open for a number of years and many improvements were evolved, chiefly by millers ihemselves, no complete award was made. the grading system. It was about this time that the millers and merchants 'first began to realise that it would be in their own interests to have all fibie graded before export, and this feeling was emphasised by the repent 0 f a delegate who had been sent to make an extensive investigation into the future prospects ot the phormium trade in Britain, the Continent of Europe, and America. He stated on his return in 1899 that if the industry was to survive and grow into one of importance the establishment of compulsory grading of all exported fibre was essential.

Meanwhile, as a result of the Spanish-American War of 1898 and lhe consequent shortage of manila fibre, there was a decided revival in prices for phormium; and this opportunity .of securing a larger market also showed the necessity for grading, as it was obvious that only the best of our fibre could compete with manila, and that any adulter-

ation of (lie superior "rades with poor fibre would be fatal to success.

It was in May, 1901, that a grader was established in Wellington. The examination of phormium by him was not compulsory, but in spite of many objections that tlie standard of grading was too high, a number of the better-class millers made use of his services. However, within a very short time the Flax Grading and Export Act, 190.1, was passed, providing for the compulsory grading of all .phormium exported, and a decided improvement; was almost at once noticeable in the quality of the fibre shipped.' Two years later the provisions of this measure were incorporated in the Products Export Act, .1903, which enactment, shared in the consolidation of 1908. The next few years marked a period of great prosperity in the industry, which was undoubtedly largely due to the higher standard demanded from the millers by the grading regulations, and by t he consequent efforts on their part, and also on the part of several of the leading engineering firms of the country towards the production of more efficient machinery. Notwithstanding this, however, the graders had repeatedly to report defects in manufacture, .most of which were due loss to inadequacies in the milling plants than to want of care or skill among the mill employees. These criticisms seldom applied to the better-class millers, many of whom had been producing fibre of high quality years before the grading regulations came into force, and who were quick to see any possibilities of reform that suggested themselves. At this period in different purls of the country there were signs of awakening interest regarding the cultivation of phormium, with a view to the conservation of future supplies of the raw material, LATER DEVELOPS ENTS. In the New Zealand International Exhibition of 1907, held at Christchurch, there were fine displays of phormium, showing the fibre in its various stages of preparation and the uses to which‘it could be put, which indicated vividly the great possibilities lying before the industry.

During the following year two instructors in milling were appointed by the Government, their duties ■being to work in conjunction with the graders in pointing out to the producers any defects in the preparation of the fibre. The same year (190 S) also saw considerable alterations in the grading regulations. A serious decrease in production was recorded at this time in consequence of an extreme depression in prices, the reason lying in the abundance of manila and in the low prices ruling for it, while the high royalties agreed upon during the previous years of prosperity were against profitable working. The fall in values had the effect of bringing about a reconsideration of the royalties paid by millers to the owners of phormium, so that the former were less likely to suffer as a consequence of any future depression. Tow-grading regulations were brought into force early in 1909, resulting in a great improvement in the quality of the tow exported. Although the during these and the following years suf-

fered both from fluctuating prices in the world’s markets and from the spread of certain insects and diseases of phormium, some of which had begun to assume a serious aspect, the improvement of milling processes and the confidence inspired by the adoption of Government grading made the industry better able to withstand such vicissitudes of fortune than at any other time in its history. Notwithstanding* the many improvements in fibre-extr-acting machinery which had from time to time been suggested and adopted, the millers themselves were the first to realise how much remained to be done in this direction, and in 1911 the New Zealand Flaxmillers’ Association approached the Government on the subject, with the result that a bonus of £12,000 was offered for improvements in the various processes. The bonus remained on offer for several years, but nothing of any radical impprtance was evolved, and many important problems in this direction still await solution.

Fibres were in great demand during the Great War, and the quantities of phormium exported approximated to the highest previously reached (roughly, 28,000 tons in 1907 and in 1913). The prices ruling for phormium during the war were greatly in excess of any previously known (except those during the American Civil War), averaging £53 per ton f.o.b. in 1918, as much as £7O per ton having been paid during part of this time.

Within the last few years a serious menace to the industry has appeared in the shape of a disease of doubtful origin known as “yellowleaf.’'’ Though not always fatal, yellow-leaf has greatly reduced the yield of many previously flourishing areas, and the combating of this disease is perhaps the greatest problem confronting the miller of to-day. The matter will be further dealt with in a subsequent article of this series.