CABBAGE-TREE HATS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 724, 27 December 1933, Page 2

CABBAGE-TREE HATS

\ USEFUL INDUSTRY NEARLY WIPED OUT. FICKLE FASHIONS. Sydney, November 11. Cabbage-tree hat making is an Aus,tralian industry which seems to ba.ve almost completely died out, not because the hats were not of good quality, cheap, or unsuited to the Australian climate, but because fickle fashion has decreed that men must

wear bats made of fur and women must wear hats made of any texture but the cabbage palm leaf. It seems a great pity, because wellmade cabbage-ftree hats are fit for a king' or queen to wear and admirably suited to the Australian climate. A few years ago a stockman was almost judged hy the cabbage-tree hat that he wore. It was considered part of his necessary equipment. A stockman wearing anything else would create as much interest in a I country town as a wild aho wearing j a dinner suiit. The price of these ' bats ranged from a few shillings to ; several pounds, according to the size, finish, and the amount of work put into them. In hush homes many mothers sat for houris plaiting these hats for their children and menfolk, and some sold a few to passing stockmen in order ito supplement their small income. They were good hats for the children, being light and affording great protection from the sun. Wionderful Wiear. They were practically( everlasting, too, unless left lying about when horses, cattle, and goats readily devoured them. The inner whitish leaves of the ealbbage palm are gathered and dried and then split into rdbbons. The next process is to boil the lea-ves. in salted water for the puojpo.se of bleaching, the leaves heing then left out at night 'for the dew to complate the process. During the plaiting the strips of leaves must be kept moist. The plaitdnig is done firmly and shaped into the shap© of a hat in much the same style as any straw hat is shaped. A clever woman can make these hats iii 'a varieity of styles for girls and women to sudt their individual tastes. ■Men arejiQt so particular about

shape or fashion, but there is no reaE son why these hats could not be made j into the latest fashionable shapes for \ men also.