CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 June 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

mxET-rrcnrw ArATEmi . The Tnvercargill man who claims to h.'iv invented ;i bullet-proof materi'' re tiie protection (if soldiers againd tin 1 enemy's tire and who wishes the Tlofciuv Department, to test the armor need not lie >i rpri-ed if lie is invited to suluvii hi:iM'lf and Ins patent cuirass, or whnter r -r il is, to a. practical test in the Depart nirnt's backyard in Puekle street. Wpilin:;fon (writes the I'.yttolton Timesl. far fhe invenfo:* does not seem fo have subjected his protective device to that convincing proof of utility, hut if hi-: armor is really all'that is claimed for it., the ingenious author should not hesitate (o face a. service rille with h'S hodv en a- -i! in the shield of his own devi-inv. He i-: not. the first hy a lons' wav to net forward a bullet-resisting jacket, hut all eyceut '.fe"l, 11 io u-e of which is ■earei'lv convenient in the infantry soldier's eiinii'.nient. have Irvn found wauling. Tt may lie, however, that 'ha r -'oii!hl:ini l contrivance is the real thine. I 1 ml lee Oifene'. aelhorilies cei lainlv j -houhl "he il a. I rial f.,r no lihelv-looi: ea' v "• ill'.'eiillloi si'ouhl i,, lu'n.'ied i-.'le uiile-leil. N~cv Xenbiud indeed loshcsses in abundance a material wliicli

in -former days proved a raa shield against bullets. This is the native flax plant. AVhcn firearms were intradural the Maoris were not long in discovering that under certain circumstances green flax 'blades closely packed were a perfect protection against the round bullet of those days. Later, in I the days of the Brown Bess and tile long Enfield, the British soldier sometimes found himself haii'led by the clever blinding and padding of the Maoris' positions with flax leaves. At Oliaowai, in Hide's war of 1845, the outer palisade, of the natives' fortified pa was thickly and closely covered with green flax, which effectually prevented rifle balls from reaching the interior through the interstices in the fence, and even deadened the impadt of the round shot fired by the field guns of those times, so that when they entered the pa their force was spent. The elasticity and tenacity of the flax fibre are qualities which, commended themselves to more than one military man in the. old days, from the point of view of defence. There was a special hind of mat which, when well wetted, would turn a musket ball. There is a world of difference between the penetrating power of the blunt rifle ball of half a century ago and the projectile of to-day, but there is the, germ of a useful idea for some war-scientist perhaps in the special properties which made the phormium tenax the occasional shield a' well as the clothing of the Xew Zealand fighting man of the past.