HEMP FOR ROPES.

Auckland Star, Issue 17, 21 January 1932, Page 19

HEMP FOR ROPES.

NEW ZEALANDS OPPORTUNITY SISAL AND MANILA. ADVANTAGES OF PHORMIUM TEX AX. (By WILL LAW SOX.) In the dark-timbered, lo.v-roufed sheds of the ropeworks of Sydney may be seen thc raw hemp and fibres which arc to be turned into hawsers to hold great ships, ropes for cordage and rigging, scaffolds and mines, and lighter iines such as clothes lines, binder twine and string. Most striking to the casual glance is the Manila hemp from the Philippines, ruddy in colour, the long hanks bulging out of pressed bales, and seeming to tell of ships ancl far seas. In vivid contrast is the bright, cleancoloured, almost white sisal from .Java. And further on can be seen the flaxen and dull gold tints of thc New Zealand hemp. These are the kinds mainly used for rope, string and twine. For heavier work, such as the -building up of rope masses for use as fenders for ships, jute from India and coir from the South Seas are often used, as less costly substitutes for Manila. Some Manila hemp is being fed into the !ir-jt carding machine. The long banks of the rich-looking fibre arc pushed between rollers which move it along the bed of the machine where thc combs arc moving forward to comb the fibre and backwards for another stroke. Under their action, the hemp straightens out, ends of hanks join till they form 0110. rough strand, thick and uneven. From machine to machine, through combs of decreasing sizes, thc hemp is taken, till a small, smooth strand is ready for the twisting machine, which spins it into a light rope. Another machine twists three strands together into a heavier rope, "a Manila line," to use a sailor's term. In this twisting, whale oil and tar arc added, and for ropes more of the triple strands arc twisted together. There is 110 limit to the size of a hawser. The heavy, thick fenders of jute, coir or Manila have many strands, all bound together with end strappings, for they have to bear thc weight and grinding action of steamers swinging to the surge in open roadsteads, against lighters or other craft, or against unyielding piers. Contrasts and Comparisons. On another machine some sisal fibre is being made into string —that clean, white string that the shopkeepers use, and this class of hemp is often made into lighter ropes. As the fibre moves along the machine, its shining whiteness is impressive. "You are not using any New Zealand liemp to-day?" a visitor says to the manager. "No. The binder twine season is over. We will not 'be making any more for some time." And it is learned that the only use the rope makers liavc for New Zealand hemp is to make it into binder twine, clothes lines and light ropes whicli will not be exposed to the weather. The fibre is not white enough for string. "We might make a good, strong rope of New Zealand hemp," the manager continues. "But if it is left out-of-doors, in three months it will bo rotten. Somehow they extract all the natural oiLs from the fibre in making the hem]). Under present conditions of working, it is too uneven in size and length of fibre, as well as in strength for big ropes. Nothing will ever beat Manila for that. Mind you, I like New Zealand hemp when it is good, but it seems to get a very rough handling, and many of the strands are torn and fractured, making thc quality uneven." Looking again the Manila hemp, redolent of the . tropics, one wonders where this fibre gets its enormous strength, which has made it such a favourite with ropemakers and seamen that about 200,000 tons of it arc exported from the Philippines every year. Manila liemp is the product of the wild plantation of the Philippines, '"musa texilis" being its botanical name. 111 cutting, the whole of the plant is taken, necessitating replanting immediately. The plant takes, three years to grow.

The cultivation of the niusa is carried out very extensively in the Philippines, , but efforts to establish it elsewhere have not been successful. 1 his applies to most of thc coarse fibre plants grown • in alien countries, the tendency being j for the fibre to gradually weaken as the years go by. Since 18-5, Manila hemp has been in use for ships' and other ropes, and in this it has a virtual monopoly. So bright in contrast with the Manila is the sisal hemp that the eye lingers on the opened bales. This fibre is indigenous to Yucatan in Central America, and the plant which produces it is "agave Americana," called "hennequen" by the Mexicans. The plant resembles an aloe, to which family it belongs, and it grows in a stiff, upright form with a bulbous stem from which spiky leaves shoot upwards, as do leaves of a pineapple. Sisal also thrives in Barbadoes, Florida and North-East India, and it has recently been introduced into Java, British East Africa, Mauritius and other places. Up to the present time, sisal has been the main rival of New Zealand hemp. Difficulties of growing, however, and the poor markets, have caused a partial failure in all countries where it grows save Java, where another variety, "agave sisaliana," is grown. A Waiting Market. Manila and sisal are filling wants in the world, as regards fibre, which could almost entirely be served by Now Zealand hemp. That it is not now doing this is abundantly evident in thc Sydney ropeworks. The best selected New Zealand hemp is stronger than sisal, but the string made from it is dingy in colour. On thc other hand, sisal fibre is too hard for binder twine and must be mixed with New Zealand hemp. The market is waiting for New Zealand; and to win thc profit from this | national product, the hemp must be. proI duced throughout of qualify to satisfy the demand. It is more adaptable for

general purposes than Manila, and by careful milling and bleaching, its strength can be increased and the natural oils returned to the hemp before it is sent away. A big advantage of the New Zealand flax is that the plants apparently live for ever, surviving even the rough handling of the primitive cutting methods of the New Zealand mills. At the present time thc eyes of thc commercial and business worlds arc focused 0:1 New Zealand flax. Endless possibilities seem to be concealed in the straight, green, waving leaves. It is not a "flax" in the correct sense of the word, but a unique plant only found in a wild state in New Zealand and Norfolk Island. It is being cultivated in South America, and in small areas in Victoria and Tasmania, while every Chinese gardon in Australia, has some of it growing for fibre to tie up bundles of vegetables. Phormium tenax is New Zealand's birthright. It should be guarded jealously and developed till it plays a "star" turn in the ropeworks of thc world, instead of a very small part. Then every ocean ship will have hawsers of New Zealand flax. More than that, it is possible for it to be used for wool bales, corn sacks and air-proof wrappings for butter and other products which must be kept untainted from other cargoes. The Maori swore by flax; and so must the pakelia, his successor and contemporary in these islands.