OF INTEREST TO FLAXMILLERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4417, 20 February 1930, Page 3

OF INTEREST TO FLAXMILLERS.

FIBRE EXTRACTION WITHOUT CHEMICALS.

Sydney, "February 17. Mr. H. 'Theodore Price, who has carried out successful experiments with cellulose, has now invented a process for extracting fibre from plants without the aid of chemicals, - or rotting any good material. Fibre from cornstalks has (been produced, also synthetic cotton. He began his experiments in Northern Queensland and now resides near Sydney. He expects to leave for America and England shortly and intends to visit New Zealand.

THE FLAX BONUS

The following letter under the nom de plume of “Flaxie,” appeared in last night’s Wellington Post: —

Under the above heading in your issue of the 14tli instant, you published the terms of the Government’s offer of a bonus of £IO,OOO for an improvement on the present process of preparation and manufacture of New Zealand hemp. What a paternal Government we have to be sure —£10,000 is a lot of

money, and the conditions are so simple and so helpful to the poor inventor,' telling him just what he has got to do. Before he can apply for the bonus, he jnust have extracted the fibre by his process from not less than 50 tons of green p leaf. The fibre so extracted must have been graded by a Government grader, and not less than 90 per cent, “good fair.” That’s not much of an improvement to ask for, why, nearly 5 per cent, of the fibre extracted in the ordinary way

reaches that standard! The condi-

tions do not say where the green leaf can be obtained from which it is considered possiple to produce 90 per cent, of “good fair,” but no doubt it can be obtained from St. Helena or some other equally accessible place. Now having obtained this wonderful leaf and produced the 90 pei' .cent, of “good fair” and made his application for the bonus in proper form, all the inventor bus to do is to convince a committee., of five (they might have called it a commission) that his process will produce:— (a) A greatly improved quality of fibre marketable at a higher price.

(,b) A considerable greater quantity of strong white fibre per ton <if green leaf. (c) A substantial reduction in the cost of producing the fibre. That seems to be ajl!. He has got to improve the quality (greatly), raise the price (don’t they call that redundancy?), get more fibre out of the green leaf, and make it white (which Nature failed to do), and reduce the cost of production. . . . . There’s a lot left out, but I had better not mention it as they might gazette some additions to the conditions. Well, now, if, on examining the application, the committee considers it worthy of trial, it may demand such reasonable demonstrations as it thinks fit,

at the expense of the inventor; and

:lie demonstrations are to take place in New Zealand. No doubt this is only reasonable, hut what 1 would like to know is: Will the leaf keep fresh if it has to be imported from some favoured laud where neither blight nor grub nor wind doth despoil, and where “Flaxie” never cuts too' low?

The committee being satisfied that all the above conditions have been well and truly complied with, in determining the amount of the |,onus to he paid for any such process, due regard is to be had to the rate of any royalty required to ho paid by the millers for the use of the process. Now I notice that only two of the committee are necessarily fiaxmillers, hut two out of live, no doubt, will be able to see that no greedy inventor charges the millers, by way of royalty, more than they wish to pay, and that no new invention makes their present mills a scrap heap. . If the bonus is to be £IO,OOO, 1. am a little puzzled oyer the clause, -in determining the amount of the bonus to he paid,” but no doubt that can be explained.

The only thing that I am dubious about is whether an inventor who lias complied with the requirements as aforesaid would be bothered to submit his invention to the Commission. If I were the lucky chap 1 won’t “call the Queen my aunt,” but would claim a more tangible relationship with Royalty—to the extent of, say, £50,000 a year.

Now, Sir, I should like to make just one little suggestion to the Government through the medium of your columns;'and that is, that alihough a pat on the back per medium of a cheque for £IO,OOO might be acceptable to the successful inventor provided “roya.lty” was not mentioned, it would he far more humane to use the money in assisting embryo inventors who have not “arrived,” and consequently have notT the cash to try out their ideas oU a commercial scale.