THE FLAX INDUSTRY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1949, 28 September 1889, Page 3

THE FLAX INDUSTRY.

Government have* received a report from the. Agent - General on the flax industry. .It to hand too late for presentation to Parliament. The document contain? : soma interesting and. valuable; .ihfbrmatidn, and fully bears out the statements of harm done to the export ir 4 aao;i' by Iliacareless and hasty way in which, /jthe fibre ;js prepared f*r market. The; Agent-General lays great strisa bn this pointy and says that as much as £6 or £7 is knocked off the price by the bad condition in which the flax com . s J to band. Ho has known instances where consignees have absolutely refused to take delivery. , He considers that the recent .rise in , yaldk'is': due to speculation” 5 id the States, consequent on the demand for binder twine. As showing what ar, important factor ,the American demand is, he points, dut that 55,000 to 60,000 tons of tf#ine will be required this year f*r that country alone. He says that dealers know that they will always get mahilla hemp up to expectation, and can depend on the quality,, and that to put our product on a good ‘ footing, shipments must be regular and.of uniform quality. He comes to two conclusions; (I) that high prices will ’depend' entirely on the supplies. of manilla and- <?isal remaining low ; (2) that jute may to a large extent take the place, of flax. Experiments are now being made in America with machinery to turn it to account for binder twine. In the face of these, two contingencies, unless the method flax is brought to a high.standard, prices will falls to next ro nethjpg,except for the very best quality. A telegfaifl ; fr6m ißlonhoim say*: The Rev. T. "B*. Waca’a flax fibre dryer, newly patented and just tried, is an eminent success. It consists of a wood and wire frame, and can be erected at a veiy small cost. The Rangiora correspondent of thalyttelton Times states that on Monday morning last Mr O, Ohinnery, the well-known flax mill proprietor, deposited at' the Patent Office, Christchurch, the models and specifications of a machine invented by him, and which . will revolutionise the present, at th* best but imperfect, mode of dressing flax fibre. For fifteen years Mr Ohinnery has. been engagedperfecting an appliance with which he hoped to dress the. fibre to a quality as fine as silk, and that, too, with a minimum of labor. He believes that the fibre dressed in the machine should oommandj by .reason of its quality in comparison with the ordinary article, a price of from £BO to £IOO per ton. The Bangiora Standard gives the following particulars of the machine 11 The idea of the machine is to turn the green blade into silky fibre at one operation. The combination of machinery necessary for this embraces improvements in the feeding rollers of the strippers, and in the table for removing the stripped flax. The new apparatus comprises a fining machine, a washing machine, a bleaching ' machine, and a wringing and- drying machine. It only requires two me'h to attend to it, one to feed and one to fold and take off the finished fibre, The flax is fed one blade at a time, the leaf travelling at the rate of a foot a second in one , endless . hank, and in ten seconds from the time the green blade enters, the fibre from it is turned out in a finished state ready lor hailing up, or for immediate use.” The machine is estimated to put through three tons of green blade in a day, and it can be regulated to turn out fisx fibre, suitable for rope-spinning, or as fine as floss ■ilk. Now Mr Ohinnery has made a move he intends to lose no time in fixing up a mill with the new machinery, but it will be some months before the plant can be started. The fact of Mr Ohinnery placing hie long reputation as a successful dreespr of Fhoimium tenax at stake, by bring out his invention, should be a sufficient guarantee of the success of the machine, and for the good of the colony all must join in the hope thiit his expectations in respect to. it will be fully realised.;