PRODUCTION OF LINEN FLAX

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23080, 24 July 1940, Page 8

PRODUCTION OF LINEN FLAX

processing mill under CONSTRUCTION

BUILDING WELL ADVANCED AT WAIKUKU

Construction at Waikuku of the first of the 11 mills to be established in the South Island for the processing of linen flax is well advanced. The factory, which will be in use before the end of the year, will be of primary importance in that it will be the first testing station of machinery imported from England on copies of which the success of the scheme will depend. The plant, which is now being copied in New Zealand, comprises some 14 units of machinery, the order for which was given in London last August by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. The machinery arrived in New Zealand early this year and includes two implements for pulling and reaping the flax, and units for de-seeding, scutching, and retting, the process of separating the fibre from the straw of the plant. The production of the crop was thoroughly investigated by Mr J. W. Hadfield, Director of the Agronomy Division of the Plant Research Bureau of the department at Christchurch, when he was in England on a four months' visit last year. Mr Hadfield inspected the crops on the Royal estates at Sandringham, where the flax, was 'first planted at the suggestion of King George V. Last year this crop was increased from 250 acres to 1000 acres.

Outlining the Government’s plan for the establishment of 11 processing mills in the South Island, the Director of Primary Production (Mr R, B. Tennent) stated last month that it was proposed to set up five tank retting mills and six natural flax mills, the scheme being a from the promise of the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) to the British Government that New Zealand would grow flax to supply fibre needed for manufacture into war supplies. The mill under construction at Waikuku is of the tank retting type, necessitating the building of large concrete tanks in which the flax is retted in warm water in considerably less time than is required by natural, retting or exposure to dew. The two-storeyed mill at Waikuku will be completed and experience will be gained in the processing of fibre before the other mills are in operation. It is expected that this mill will be able to handle the produce from 1000 acres each season. The contractors for the building of the factory are Messrs Keir and Thompson, Rangiora. The second mill in the North Canterbury district will be located in the Oxford area. The factory to be built there will be of the natural or dewretting type, and will probably be able to process the produce from 1500 acres.