FLAX FOR TEXTILE INDUSTRY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 51, 2 March 1939, Page 6

FLAX FOR TEXTILE INDUSTRY

FIBRE WOULD MAKE SUITABLE YARN VIEWS OF ENGLISH EXPERT [ Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, March 1. Possibilities for the rehabilitatior of the Now Zealand flax industry anc even for the establishment of a sec ondary industry of vital importance lo the Dominion were suggested bj Mr. John Redshaw, of Bradford, before his departure from Wellington by the Awatea after a holiday visit. His statement amounted to a conviction that soft flax fibre could be carded and spun into yarn suitable for the manufacture of textiles. i Mr. Redshaw has had a lifetime I experience of the woollen industry. He is well known throughout the • world as the designer of the endless tape condenser and wool carding machine, used in all countries where wool is woven and recognised ai guaranteeing a regular and even yarn.

[ “I have had submitted to me by | a group in New Zealand, samples of soft fibre prepared by a simple proi cess from Now Zealand flax,’’ said I Mr. Redshaw. “These samples have i lhe consistency of wool. From my | knowledge of carding and spinning I machinery I can guarantee that this [ fibre can be carded and spun into yarn for textile manufacture. With 'experimentation the thickness and ’coarseness of the yarn best produced [ from the fibre could be ascertained Judging from the sample I would say | there h an opening for New Zealand Jin the textile industry. If I had n f by experience sensitive fingers to toil the difference I would have thought the fibre was wool."

Mr. Redshaw emphasised that he had no personal interest in the activities of the New Zealand group but was merely concerned in passing an opinion on the fibre. He mentioned that after seeing woollen mills of lhe Dominion in operation he had formed the opinion that by the installation of up-to-date machinery the mill? would be able to turn out woollen textiles of better and more even quality at a cheaper cost.