TREATMENT OF FLAX

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 182, 1 May 1931, Page 2

TREATMENT OF FLAX

Offer of £12,000 Bonus ASPIRANT FROM SYDNEY Dominion Special Service. Auckland, April 29. The offer of a bonus of £12.000 by the New Zealand Government to anyone who can devise a practical means of bringing clown the costs of converting flax into hemp without in any way impairing the quality has drawn many aspirants. Today there are several men and women in the Auckland province and in different parts of the Dominion who consider they are working on .processes which will allow them to claim the reward. The conditions are rather stringent and there is little possibility of the Government paying over the money unless the new process has been fully tested. The claimant is required to treat a minimum of 500 tons of leaf and out of this 90 per cent, is required to grade good fair. A new claimant recently arrived from Sydney. This is Mr. J. H. Douglas, who brought over a process which he claims will not only bring down the costs of production by £lO a ton, but. will aso improve the quality of the finished fibre, eliminate much of the present waste, and open up the way for flax to be used for many other jiurposes than it is today. Mr. Douglas carries with him samples of felt macle from New Zealand flax and has also gone into the question of the manufacture of grain sacks and wool packs. Out of about 30 fair-sized mills in the Auckland province only six are working at the present time. A similar state of affairs exists in other parts of New Zealand. In this province, also, there are about 10,000 'WJ'es of new flax plantations awaiting cutting, with the controlling companies not prepared to erect mills in face of present export prices.