NEW ZEALAND FIBRE WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH FLAN.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 393, 14 August 1889, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND FIBRE WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH FLAN.

Auckland, August 7. A JiTfjm.v intkuwinu and instructive loctuie on "New Zealand Fibre" was delivered at the; Auckland Institute, which assembled at the Museum. Pi in ims- street, last evening. There was a large attendance, and Prote.-sor Thomas occupied the chair. Tho lectutci 1 , Mr J. A. Pond, dealt with his feuujeet in an exhaustive manner, and lent peculiar ul tiacliveneas to hit? lecture by a gieat vun'ety of practical illustrations in the shape of raw nianufactuied products, of. many of which tho value is not generally known. These were shown in comuaiipon with foreign products of a siivi'ar character, and the relative uses and values ot each doi-eiibrd. Mr Pond, who was received with npplau.se, said the subject of New Zeaii.ud fibres wns a veiy extensive one, and embraced •* > \ "iv many varied plants n>\<\ diverse uses u> which they could be pit that he would bo compelled t<> go Lupptnyly over the surface, rcfening to okpeiience>> ot the past, hO that they misfit see whuein their successes had proved .ftd"anl;ij:cin!£- ami u herein their failuies had tauirhfc valuable Lessons ior futine work. lie iliun I'etfnod to the ohemiual properties ot plants tn general tenr-d, and to fche po-- Ihiliby <>f ilu pioduction of goods which could commercially represent indigo, quinine, and -dk. He -aid that it was not likely that they would be troubled with much rivalry in thi=> colony. Mr Point then went on to refer to the gieat vaiiotv in Pbre.% and mentioned especially cotton a» the hitrhe«t of the cellulose vanity, folio »vcd clo?elv by ICsryptmn llav, and on Iho lower y culo, straw it ml wood. The two foimor produced 'he higher ela-& of goods and the two latter. the cheaper, cotton costing 4 from £60 to L"3O por ton, :md wood aid btra.v pulp fron i! 4 to Uo per ton. Dealing more especially with NevvZealatid fibie?, JSJ . I'o.j'J tuu\ th.ib it na« impossi'ule to speak of them without refeiring to Ihu ■phor/nivm /> nr,x, w Inch had taken tho foremost pl.!p 1 .!! 1 " 1 ,miong«t these colonial product-'. The flax, ho haul, had 2nd formidable rivals? lo contend with, and the inability of colonist- to su-tain a regular supply ga\* ripe Lo unfortunate fluctuation in piicee. If a valued article was not constantly available, a I'"" 5*5 * useful »>lsole Look its place, and thid wa.s uai ucuLirly the rasa with New Zealand flax' He spoke ot Pi, Hector's book on Now Zealand flax as ot the greatest value to all who had to do with flax, and then went on to refer to flax culture. He said that the white population oven now had not brought the cultivation of fla.\ to Mich a degree of perfection as was attainable by the natives hall a century ago. One reason for thi'B was the impossibility of devoting so much time to dressing flax as was put upon the raw article bv the Maoris, and another reason was tho lack of necessary machinery and chemical processes. JJdr I'ond exhibited several samples of dressed (la\. including some very fine specimens, and notably some *'fag endb" that had been inserted in the centre of bales. He said that if tho manufacturer had to anticipate the centre f hi 1 * bales like that, he must, f couise, give a correspondingly low price. Tho remedy was evidently to compel all shippers of fiax to have their .parcels branded with a trade mark. Mr Pond exhibited sail cloth, beautifully arranged, manufactured from phorndinn (max, and many other apparently marketable fabric""*, also produced from h'ax. Referring to the great work put upon China grass, of which a very fine, silky sample was exhibited, 'Mr Pond said that flax- v.-a« capable ot as great perfection in dressing, and next he placed before the audience ,n sample of sisal, an American product thai had done so much for New Zealand flax-. He said there was some tlanger of phormutm (aia.c being worked out by Ofaele?s management, and urged the desirability of systematically cultivating tnvs valuable industry. Not only cultivation, but selection, had improved beet sugar, the cereal?, and =-o on, and in the same way could the flax he vastly improved by sele: Hon. Bronze, green, and variejrated 11 tx weie ex-hibked in illustration of this point. Another valuable (ibre, Mr Pond said, was the ordinary cabbage tree, not only for the production of paper, but also for fibrous fabrics. Air. Thos. Cotter had drawn his attention to the fact that the ftbre was considerably ela&tic. and where elasticity was required the cabbage tree must become of great value. Mr Pond next dealt at length with the value of cellulose in the manufacture of paper, and said thai at present no less than a million a j car was paid for ex-ported grass imported into England, chiefly from .Spain, for this purpose. He said that in the manufacture of ilax there was an enormous waste, and there was lost an enormous quantity of cellulose material. Dr. Hector stated that from 1867 to 188S, 42,000 tons of flax was exported trom tho colony, and he (Mr Pond) thought he was not far above the mark in saying that 20,000 tons of good paper material had during that period gone into tho streams and been washed away. He did not advocate the establishment ot a paper-mill right a\vay,bufc de&ired, to seethe utilisation of all the«e materials where the manufactured articles were produced. He pointed out that by the utilisation of the best part ot flax for fibre and tho was>fcc ior paper manufacture, a much better value could be obtained for the labour entailed. Indeed, he was of opinion that tho value obtained for the "waste" would in this way pay for the dressing of the flax. Tho "Waikalo River and Waiho, Mr Pond said, were particularly well situated for the manufacture of paper pulp from the flay waste, and this along with other fibres would give a valuable article for paper making, and for cxpoit. We impoited broom coi - n, tobacco, and many other things that could be produced in the colony, because of the custom o? running in grooves, but the time was coming when we must exert ourselves to increase our products. Mr Pond exhibited two very fair samples of paper made from the cabbage tree and from pkonnium teva& by Mr Tinne, and finally he urged strenuously the need forcon- , servation oi our varied products. In this way he pointed out that great assistance could be rendered to the out settler, who had, in many instances, a , much harder life than was commonly I dreamt of. They required the assistance of the Chamber of Commerce- to bring the value of our products before the home consumers, and to obtain additional information for the better utilisation of these valuable products. At the conclusion of his | lectuie, 2>lr Pond was loudly applauded. Dr. Purchaa said that he had taken great interest in this subject ever since 1845, when he first came to the colony, and learned with very great pleasure of the vast sums of monoy obtained by the exportation of flax. Ho mentioned that while the na- , tives produced a very. beautiful dressed flax they xitilised a very small portion of the raw material, and that ib would never do for others to adopt &uch a method. He eaid that flax was very easily cultivated, but required great care in various ways, particularly in cutting, Dv Purchas recalled the time when, in the history of

Auckland, there was flax on nearly every piece of open land and on most of the volcanic hillfe. It wat» cleat royed by cattle, and what was loft was h> the Domain or in other places where it had beon protected. Jn cutting flax, the centre should always be left, and with caieful cutting one crop could bo obtained every year. Speak- , ing of the production of paper trom flax, he paid he belie veu the taw article could almost be put in one end of u machine, and come out of the other :\ b>o\vn paper. Dr. Pnrohas also spoke of flax as a #ood mattre. 1 - material, nnd also mentioned that a beautilnl and scry stiong fibre was obtainable from the pineapple. He lurther spoke of the value of flax as a cattle fabtener, in the place, of oil cake, lie did not advocate the utili- 1 sation of flax for the production of articles

of colonial wearing apparel. Professor Thomas, who followed, mentioned that on a recent visit to Waikato he noticed three truck load 9 of flax that had been cut close by the root^. causing an enormous waste, and really " killing the goose that laid the golden e^g." He was particularly struck with the large number of litMe flaxurills going up all over the count) v. ff there happened any fulling oli in the consumption of flax, the result mutt be disastrous to therp '•mall mil la and the people employed by thorn, and ii. wn- rf the utmost importance that every oboib should be made to impres- tho^t- who now* ore purchasers of ila.\ 10 recognise its real \alue by exporting only a Hr°t flass article, and the exclugion of any iufeiior mateiial that would tend to bring the flax into disrepute. The Institute then adioumcl till August ! 19th.