LECTURE ON THE MANUFACTURE OF NEW ZEALAND FLAX DELIVERED AT THE AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVI, Issue 4023, 14 July 1870, Page 4

LECTURE ON THE MANUFACTURE OF NEW ZEALAND FLAX DELIVERED AT THE AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.

By Captain F. W. Btaraoar.—July 12, 1870.

It was not until the year 1869 that New Zealand flax began to be known in the London market; fox*, although it had been exported to England for many years previously, it was only shipped in small quantities at a time, and sold privately, so that few manufacturers knew anything about it except from report. Ever since the foundation of the colony the value of the plant lias been recognised, and many people have si ent considerable sums of money in trying to produce from it a fibre that could be sold at a profit. Failure, however, followed failure until at at last, in 18G7, a machine was produced which was brought so far towards a state of perfection that it reduced the time and cost of producing the fibre to such an extent that it was apparent that, where circumstances were favourable, phormium fibre could be produced at a profit. Ido not here mean to attempt to trace the early histoiy of this manufacture, nor to discuss the question as to whom belongs the credit of inventing the present machine ; my object is to look forwards and not backwards, to explain the system at present in use, and to point out whore improvement seems moat wanted. All our knowledge is derived from observation and experiment. Observation, or the noticing of occurrences, may bo either the haphazard observation of things that happen to fall in our way ; or it may be the scientific observation of examining closely and minutely those things that; we desire to have information about. Experiment, or the noticing of effects produced by causes under our own control, may also be either the haphazard experiment of trying what will be the effect produced by any agent that happens to be easily available } or it may be the scientific experiment where the experimenter has carefully considered what is the effect he wishes to proditce, and what is the agent most likely to iulfil his purpose. In all the arts and manufactures these two methods have been followed, unconsciously perhaps, in arriving at the processes to be employed, in order to produce the best results. Haphazard observation and experiment come first. They are the means employed in the earlier stages, and by all savages and uncivilised nations. Scientific observation and experiment follow after, when civilisation has trained the minds of men to inquire more curiously into cause and effect. Haphazard observation, when extending over a long series of years, may sometimes arrive at processes of such perfection that the best scientific observation and experiment cannot improve upon them. The European flax manufacture furnishes us with a good example. The value of retting flax, or causing it to undergo fermentation, was no doubt discovered ages ago by haphazard observation. Scientific observation has shown that the original object for which flax was retted — namely, the separation of the fibres from the woody tissue — is not in reality so important as its further object of separating the ultimate finres from one another; and, in order to avoid the delay and lo3s occasioned by retting, scientific experiment has invented machines to detach the fibre from the wood. But all these machines have proved failures, because science cannot discover any process equ; 1 to retting for separating ultimate fibres ; all it has done is to improve on tho process, and reduce the time required for the operation. On the. other hand, science is sometimes able in a few years to arrive at results which would have taken centuries of haphazard observation to accomplish — as in the cotton manufacture, where the processes of carding and drawing out may be instanced as triumphs of scientific expeiiment j and also in the art of bleaching, where the scientific observation and experiment of a few years entirely altered the whole system. In commencing, therefore, the study of any manufacture with the view of trying to improve it, it is advisable, indeed necessary, to examine carefully the processes which have been formerly used, and try to understand the reasons for each j and, when we turn to the manufacture of New Zealand flax, we find much to guide us in the haphazard observations and experiments of the Maoris, for they produced a fi re 'from their best plants of a purity of colour that we cannot yet approach ; neither are our machines capable of prodnciug a material of that oilinoss of feel -and glossiness of appearance which is seen in their best hand-prepared tihore. The Maoris used two different processes for different kinds of flax. With the best kinds (tihore), they simply tore out the fibre, rubbed it together iV their hands to open the bundles, and removed the small quantity of tissue that remained by scraping it with their nails. The inferior kind (haro) they first scraped with a shell, having sometimes previously steeped it in water to 'soften the akin • they then soaked it in tv-ater for from two to four days, then beat it with stones while it was wet, and scraped it again ; then soaked it again, and then bleached it and dried it on poles ; and they then beat it with sticks to remove the remaining tissue. For this information lam indebted to Mr. Preece's paper in the NewZealand Church Almanac, 1848, and to Mr. •J. A. Wilson, who has lately taken great trouble to ascertain from the Thames natives their former mode of preparation. It will thus be seen thai the main features of the, system they empldyed for the commoner kinds of flax are very similar to those which we now employ ; for in both the fibre is first cleaned by mechanical me*n3. JErom the tissue of the leaf, it is then soaked in water, dried, and beaten before sending to market ;■ and. "those mills which depart from this system, I either by boiling their flax, or by only rinsing it in a stream-, instead *ojf soaking it, produce an inferior quality,, of fibre. We;, have, however, iio' ''process', as yet /. that --.answers' - tb;^\be»^n^ '/on" stones while wet, and thave, not yet'saSs'--fied myself *s A to the' Qbjeot whiohf A wa« in- 1 teridied, to be attained by this process.*. ,;It v might 'have. ?3>eW l'i«.BreakMp'fe&.ejfiVfotißvl 'i« .Break Mp'fe&.ejfiVfotiBv bundles) aaid luake^them^mor^ aife "orii ■ inighthtvejbeenlto^eajc'tip' the*cellular tissue asj to aU6w;their contents to escape j^tlje $eepnd,"soafcing;, or it might «ly havft ht^M htfpjjwi wmoyai of , thstiwnVhv tha jr^nnrl rtf *W

first wastheir main object, it Vouldbe wortfa while to try to discovery pr cess by*whiob we could also eflfe'ct if, buti» « jnore, economical manner; but, if'eitHek'of thejatter was the object, it would be unnecessary for us, as our machines, 1 by one process,,- would clean the fibres much, better than both I&ff Bcrapings of, the-Maftris* -"> - T If, however, science has nofc as yet improved upon the system, it has greatly imp. oved upon some of the processesth»t they followed, and the speed with which the fibre is cleared from the tissue has converted an unprofitable em- r ployment into a profitable one. There is, howeve^ still a wide field for scientific observationand experience inthe manufacture of phormium fibre, and I propose, to-night to lay before you snch few observations and experiments as I have made, in the hope that they may be of usa to others who have not • the same means at their disposal for making a microscopical examination of the fibre, and also with the hope that the facts I shall describe, and the suggestions I may throw out, mil give rise in time to practical applications that wJlimprovethe process of manufacture; and to this end I also tope that others will make their observations and experiments public also. v One of the most important results of a sci. entifie investigation 6 to show us what we cannot do, and what therefore we should not attempt; and although these results are never so popular as those which show a new and improved way of doing a thing, they probably on the whole, save as much money to those that will be guided by them as is made by the employer* of the new processes. With thispn view, I have divided my lecture into two parts, the first of which is more or less scientific, being an endeavour to give you as clear an idea as I can of the plant, fibre, gum, &c, with which we have to deal, and to show to you what appears possible for us to do, and what inipos3ible ; while the second part will be more practical, as in it I shall discuss the various operations through which the leaf goes before it is ready to be exported as fibre But as I 1? ?. t° ii 1 *?™**™ that you can get from the Interim Report on the Growth, Culture, and Manufacture of New Zealand Flax" (Auckland, 1S70), and from other easily available sources, I shall avoid touching upou any point on which the information seems, insufficient, unless I think that I can throw a new light on it, or that I can correct whatappear to me to be errors. Varieties of Plant : To a New Zealand audience I shall hardly be expected to aiv« » description of the flax plant itself, for we all know it well ; and I shall therefore confine myself to a iew remarks on the principal varieties, and on the internal structure of the leaf. The flax plant is well known to be highly variable, but no attempt has as yet bsen made to describe thfse varieties in a scientific manner, and consequently great confusion exists among the names. Much of this confusion appears to me to have arisen by supposing that those varieties which were considered nearly alike by the Maoris, and for wnich they sometimes used indifferently thesame name, are really allied from the scientific point of view, whereas the Maori system of classification was founded on oue feature alone, namely, strength of fibre. Ail those varieties the fibre of which 'was so strong as to enable them to draw it out in long ribbons, without breaking, they called "tihorc;" while those inferior kinds which had to be soaked and scraped with a shell in order to get length of staple, they called "haro," and it is evident that many varieties would thus get grouped together, which under a ' better arrangement would be more widely separated. Thus the " paritanewha," or yellow-lull flax, was called a tihore (Report on Growth, Culture, and Manufacture of New Zealand Flax. Appendix p. 13), although it is much more nearly allied to the common swamp flax, and is very different from the " oue," or typical tihore. At present the colour of the loaf, and. more especially the colour of the midrib and margins of the leaf, have been- taken almost exclusively as the distinguishing marks of the different varieties j but these are altogether unreliable, for nob only does, the colour of the margin differ in old and young leaves, but often different leaves of the same plant, and even different parts of " the same leaf, have differently coloured margins. The attempt for instance to distinguish tihore by a red or orange margin would certainly lead to many mistakes,^ many of the varieties of the common swamp flax have margins identical in colour with true tihore j and it appears to me that habit of growth, shape of the leaf, size of the flower stalk, and shape of the seed pod are of far more importance than colour of margin, or even colour of leaf. 1 here can, I think, be no doubt but that at least two distinct species of Phormium exist in these Islands. Dr. Hooker, in his " Hand Book of the New Zealand Flora," admits two; although at the same time lie expresses an opinion that both are but races of one plant. The opinion of so distinguished a botanist must carry with it great weight, but it is quite possible that even he may have fallen into error through not having had sufficient opportunities of examining the plants in their living state, and by having had dried specimens sent to him with wrong names attached to them. Indeed it seems almost certain that such has been the case, for he describes the pod of P. Oolen.-ioi as similar to that of P. Tenax but smaller. It is of considerable importance that the existence of thos.e two. different kinds of phormium should be recogniaed ; for, as will be seen, they produce fibre of very different strengths, t must, leave to some person bettor acquainted with botany than myself the difficult task of bringing into order the numerous varieties that are found under various names in different parts of these islands; but I will briefly describe the two species, and the four uio^t important varieties known to me in the Waikato, (To be continued,)

Archdeacon Huxtable was the first who made experiments in the filtration of liquidBe anure, through a bed composed of ordinary loamy soil, and he found that transmitted manure lost l-oth colour and smell. Pro. feasor Way then followed up the subject by filtering sewage through various *oils, and he found that an imperial -gallon of the liquid before it was filtered contained 492 grams of organic matter and salts, such as ammonia, lime, silica, potash, &c, whtreas, after filtering, it only contained 248 grains. The earth, therefore, which consisted principally of sand and clay, had absorbed the difference. Sewage, which, when mismanaged, contains the germs of loathsome disease and death, when properly cared for contains the elements of food and life, those very things of which we rob the earlh so lavishly, but Which We forget to give hack again. The Eastern nations are wiser than we are. The Chinese, who so denselypopulate the Celestial Kingdom, and are consequently obliged to cultivate every inch of ground, are perfectly alive to the fact that, were they uot to utilise their sewage, the ground would very soon be exhausted. Each individual, therefore, is bound by law to see to this, and that there is no waste of material on his part. Jt is the same in Japan. A writer on that country says, ' ' Japan is better cul tivated than England, though it is so without meadows, without fodder production, and even without a single head of cattle, either for draughtor fattening • and it fa so without the least snpply of guano, , bones, saltpetre, - or-rape cake. ' Yet Japan contains a larger number o^inhabitaiitathan GreatßHtain and Ireland, and maintains them without any supply of food from other parts. The only manure-producer is man.", ,

i SAW MILL FOR/SALE, ON the - "W»iroa River, Kaipara. Cuts ' .10, r OOO.feetper<tay, if complete -with Planing and T.andG. Machine,*ndJias a large supply -of Timber ia t^ie 3o«h, jWOipli can ,- be t' bt to the Mill at all tim^i ,of . ooda<— Fdr fall 'pirtidulawi apply to' ; BROWN, OAMPMICL, k CO. '. Auokl^nd, Jun&29, 1370. . ■

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