NEW ZEALAND FLAX. PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 409, 9 October 1889, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND FLAX. PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE.

Knowing that any information about flax would at the present time be acceptable to our readers, owing to the advantages that have been reaped by this colony through the flax boom, and largely by this portion of the colony, one of our representatives this morning waited on a gentleman who has for years been engaged in the manufacture of the article in the lower Waikato. For many years past thero has been a small steady output from this district, but the price received for the manufactured article was not sufficiently tempting to induce people! to go in largely. Most of thof» who made the manufacture pay, formerly cameflTit on in connection with some other business and employed chiefly members of their own family. >»ow, however, it is being engaged on as a regular business, and at the present time a good paying bus ness, bynumbers of people who often know very little about it, and who, if they are not careful, will in the end bite their nails over it. I After the usual remarks on the weather our reporter said, "I should like to get a full account, right from the beginning, ot how you turn out the manufactured flax." " Right you aro. The first thing i 3, of course, to catch your green ilax. You must always get your mill as near as possible to a good supply of flax and to a stream of water. It U no use placing your null near a few hundred acres of flax, for that will soon bo exhausted, and you will have to remain idle until it grows again. You must make sure of a good steady supply. If you have a good large swamp with plenty of flux, lucky for you ; but in our district the chief supply is the binall swamp and banks of creeks along the Waikato River. Then you mutt have a stream of water close at hand for your steam engine and to wash your flax. Many of the mills are driven by water power, which is the choapeat plan." '* Well, but how do you get the green flax to the mill /" "Oh, the- flax cutters, usually Maori?, though Europeans can earn good wages at the work, cut it in the swamps and carry it in well-tied bundles of say 601b each to some convenient spot, where it is sold to the miller by the ton. Of course he may own the flax himself and simply pay for the cutting." •"Does nob the cutting destroy the plant?'' "Not at all if it is done properly. The mistake often made is that the flax cutter, being greedy, cuts the blades too low, because the lowest part is very heavy. In that way he destroys the young blade shoots and kills the plant. The remedy is to refuse to buy flax so cut. If the flux be cut at a fair height it springs up again in a very short space of time. Moreover, the thick heavy part of the blade is not nearly so good for fibre. Draining swamps is said to be a very good way of promoting the growth of the flax in them." •• What is the difficulty to be overcome with this green flax '!" "The main point is to get rid of the gum, as it is called, which gives the gresnness. When this is gone the fibre, the more useful part, is left. If some process could be discovered for taking all the gum right away without destroying the fibre, the discoverer would be blessed. However, to the present method. The gum is beaten out of the blade by some machine, such as Price's, Gibbons' or Masefield's, all on the same principle. The machine consists of two rollers working into one another, with a bar of iron at the back and a drum with ribs running along it called beaters, revolving at great speed. Leading to the rollers is a tongue into which the blades are placed one by one from the bench on which they lie, by the feeder. The rollers suck them in, as it were, and bruise them. They pass out at the other side well bruised, and go ovei the bar, and, as thoy do so, the beaters of the drum whip all, or nearly all, the gum out of them, and this gum falls below. The fibre left comes gradually down, and each blade is taken by a boy who makes a small bundle of twelve or thirteen blades, laid longitudinally, together, and very carefully. Of course the machine has a frame and covers, but the preceding is the simple process. " "Is there any danger connected with it V "There is absolutely none to the feeder, but the boy who is taking away will sometimes, unless he is warned carefully, get his hand too near the drum — trying perhaps to pull down some wandering fibres — and if he does so, woe betide him. Tho finger or hand is oft at once. Such accidents are, however, very rare. The fibre as it comes down has no guide, and may catch at the sides of the drum, and the 10volution of the latter will cause it to be carried round ; but if the machine is kept well screwed up, with the iron bar in its proper position, no such thing is likely to happen. Carelessness is the invariable caufc of accident." " Well, tho taker-away has the fibie, what then ?" j "He hands his little bundle, neatly laid j out, to the washer, who goes to the race (if tho mill be driven by water) or to the stream and washes each ' hank ' carefully and doubles it up. When he has three or four doubled up he ties them in a bundle and throws them in a box or receptacle to eteep for a couple of hours or so." " Why does the fibre need waahine ?" " The same old trouble. All tho gum is not beaten out by the drum, and the washing gets lid of most of " the stray bits that ara left, whilo the steeping assists in taking out tho colouring matter." " Is tho gum no good ?'' " Well, very little. It has beon used for manure, and is found to succeed fairly well with some crops. It has also been used instead, of chatt for horses, and they rather like it, but no great raluo is attached to it, and it discolours the fibre." " What do you do after the steeping ?" " Tho bundles are then thrown out on a rack for dome of the water to run from them, and are after that taken to tho spreading ground, which may be covered with fern or grass. In winter, wire is very often used, the others getting so wet. Each hank is spread out carefully to dry and bleach in the sun. After remaining out several days the flax is turned and in a day or two hanked up and brought in to be scutched. The exposure to the weather has now dried it well and given it a decent white colour. The scutching will take out the dry particles of gum and beat off the coarser fibre." "Do you go on giinding while this is being done ?"' " Oh, jes ; the mill is going all tho time. The boys out spreading, turning, or taking in havo easy work, and only want a general supervision. Well, when the flax is taken in the coarse fibre, etc., has to be beaten off. This is done by tho scutch, which is best described as the frame of a drum. It looks like two large wheels revolving, and joined by bars of wood which act as beaters on the flax. The ecutch is in a sort of box, with a slit into which tho flax is placed. ( The tow, or coarse stuff, goes out at tho < back, where it is collected. A good deal ' depends on the amount of bleaching and j ' scutching the flax; gets j , for somo wakens j <

are greedy enough to give little so that they may have as much weight as possible, nob caring about the quality." '• How is the flax got into the bales we see?' "After each hank is scutched the baler takes two or three, places them together, doubles them up twisting a neat head on tkera, ties them and places them evenly in an ordinary boxed-in screw press. The tow is pressed into bales in the same way, but more roughly. The bales are securely tied and the flax is ready for market." "Is the work hard?" '•Not at all The hardest part is the scutching, the beabor3 pulling the arms a good deal, but it is a steady strain. All the rest is easy. Nor is it unhealthy. It is mostly in the open air, and with plenty of water about. The gum stains hands and clothes, but that is nothing. Most of the work is so easy that it can be done by boys, with one or two men to look after them. 11 What caufres the different values of the flax?" 11 Depends entirely on the manufacturer. Some men are greedy enough or ignorant enough to rufah the stuff through the mill, half bleach it, and partly scutch it, and of ourse they injure the market. However, a horb time will s=how them their error when they find good brands getting high prices and their own low ones ; bub abpre=enb bho manufacture is in its infancy and buyers are not careful enough as to quality. "Is there an unfailing supply of green flax ?" " There is plenty of green flax in various part-*, and it grows again rapidly if nob destroyed in the way I have mentioned above. Moreover, the supply could be increased by the draining of swamps and by cultivation, matters which are not attended to at all at present. As usual, we never think of the future. Grab all you can get now, never mind by-and by. " 1 Have any improvements been made in flax machinery ?" " I have heard of tome, but have not yet seen anything to beat the old style. There is little doubt improvements can be made, bub as yet there is shown nothing practicable on a large scale. Of course, I give you the process of manufacture as generally carried on. Some few details may be different in other mills, but on the whole I think that is the general method of working." " Auckland Star " October 4.