NEW ZEALAND FLAX.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 718, 1 October 1870, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND FLAX.

The New Zealand Commissioners have furnished a report to the Colonial Secretary, embodying much valuable information relative to New Zealand flax, gained by them from manufacturers and spinners in the North of England and Scotland. The information, though encouraging, sets it altogether beyond doubt that the present method of preparing the fibre must give place to an improved system, if its culture is to be attended with any considerable benefit. Several manufacturers who were called on appeared to know something about the fibre, but one and all declared its total want of adaptation for spinning purposes. The information obtained from the principal rope-makers was also, to some extent, discouraging. The greater bulk of the New Zealand flax in the market was found to be dull in color, harsh in fibre, and very imperfectly freed from the leaf, in the best samples the straw leaf or scurf adhering to the fibre so as to reduce considerably its value as a substitute for Manilla. In point of strength it has been found to be much less than the latter fibre, and as it also rotted more quickly when exposed to the wet of the deck, its use, except for running rigging by sailing ships, has been condemned.

The following extracts we quote from the report:— "Itisestimated that seven-eighth's of the hest samples of New Zealand flax sold have been used to mix with Manilla, not altogether surreptitiously, but in many cases to order, and as producing a cheaper rope, strong and durable enough for certain purposes. This rope has given satisfaction. We saw some good New Zealand rope at Liverpool, such as is supplied to the American ships ; but at Glasgow we had the opportunity of inspecting a stock of very superior description, not greatly inferior to Manilla in its bright colour and glossy appearance. The general opinion is, that New Zealand flax, properly dressed, will find a good market for making a serviceable cheap rope, saleable at a price certainly not below £37, its present quotation, Russian being now £-16, and Manilla £UG. Provided the supply of flax be of the quality above mentioned, the large rope-makers of the North, (who are using it as an established article of their trade, and are therefore better able to judge of its qualities than those who speak only by report, or after a single ineffectual trial,) think that the colonists may calculate on a large sale at from £3O to £35; but it must be free from straw. The longer the flax is, the better. The hauks or " strikes " in each bale should be all of the same length, and the bale marked accordingly. " Attention to such matters greatly facilitates the sale, especially as regards an article against which a prejudice has been created by large shipments of an inferior sort. " The cost of New Zealand flax places it entirely beyond the reach of papermakers, who to a largo extent depend upon the refuse of other trades. Esparto grass from Spain, which, although scarce, can be bought here at £8 a ton, is now most extesively used in the manufacture of newspaper and book

papers; and although New Zealand flax would be useful for giving it strength as a better class paper, and for producing good papers by itself, yet the price would be such as could never pay the colonists to export. There is a wood pulp imported from Q-ermany, and New Zealand flax or tow might probably pay if reduced to pulp and shipped in blocks at a low freight. Blocks of any size would suit, but they must be pressed free from water, and unbleached. It is difficult to get makers to commit themselves to anticipatory prices, but £lB to £2O is a probable figure. Doubts are however suggested as to the pulp keeping during so long a voyage, and we were advised to recommend that, before shipping to the Home market, parcels should be first sent for experiment to the paper mills at Melbourne. "At Manchester we were glad to learn from a very large house that New Zealand flax was being used by several spinners, but on visiting them we found that one and all declared its inapplicability in its present state for manufacturing purposes. Here, as at Leeds, Dundee, aud other places, every manufacturer we called on knew something of the article, and many had tried it and found it unsuitable for their purposes. They treated the term " flax " as a misnomer, and declared that, so long as it retained its harsh nature and inability to split, it was not adapted for spinning purposes. At Kirkcaldy, Messrs Lockhart very kindly put a strike through their machinery to convince us of its want of adaptation for spinning, even as a substitute for low-priced jute bagging; and everywhere else we were told, that all the while the fibre broke short off like a stick, as it does as at present prepared, it would prove unfit for their use. We invariably narrated the advice which had been given to the colonists, to ship their flax in a rough state, trusting to British competitition and science for bringing it into consumption ; and were as invariably assured that the fibre must be softened and cleansed from scurf during its colonial stage, numerous experiments having shown it to be too late to do so after it had reached England. " We should have been considerably disappointed with the immediate future of New Zealand flax if we had only taken with us samples of that prepared by the colonists. We should have had to report that its use was likely to be for some time confined only to rope. But we had fortunately a small sample of flax dressed by the Natives. It was by no means a superior sample, very scurfy and far less silky than much we have seen in the Colony. Every manufacturer seemed struck with it.

It completely answered all the objections they had raised to the ordinary samples we had previously shown them. There was but little harshness in it; it was almost as soft as they could wish ; and the fibre broke feathery instead of square. They doubted its being the same material, and on our explaining the cause of the difference —that the European dressed the whole leaf, while the Native only dressed one side of it —they expressed their conviction that a market was open for any quantity, at a comparatively high rate. In Lancashire and Yorkshire they did not hesitate to say £6O. In Dundee the largest canvas manufacturers named £SO, and none, however cautiously inclined, fixed a lower value than £4O a ton. In one word, while the ordinary New Zealand flax was considered useful only for rope, the Native dressed was declared a very acceptable addition by cotton, woollen, jute, and canvas manufacturers, without a single exception. These all, however, insisted, as the ropemakers did with respect to the ordinary kind, that freedom from scurf was an absolute necessity." From the foregoing it will be seen that increased care in its cultivation and in the mode of dressing the fibre will lead to flax becoming a profitable article of export. If care is taken to prepare only a bright well-cleaned article, equal to that dressed by the Natives, an almost unlimited demand would arise for the article.