THE FIRST FLAX TRADE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 147, 23 June 1915, Page 14

THE FIRST FLAX TRADE

BRITISH INTEREST AWAKENED

[Special to The Post.] It is interesting to find that Now Zealand flax was exciting attention in England as carlyl ac the year 1822. Here is the text of a lettci', copied from the records in tho British Record ■ Office, London: — "Botanical Gardens, Bronapton. 17th January, 1822. My Lord (Bathurst) : I have made some extensive experiments with the plant that produces New Zealand flax, of which I havo grown a quantity for several yearu, and I find that tho fibre is very much stronger as well as finer than that of either hemp, or flax. .It is. also iho opinion that stronger cables and finer linen cloth can bo manufactured therefrom. The. plant will not thrive sufficiently well in the open air for it over to become an. object of cultivation, but ifc would be of inestimable value in the warmer climates, of some of the British colonies, and I havo waited for some opportunity of recommending its cultivation in some suitable places, because I have read in the newspapers that it ie jthe intention of the Government to send convict* to the Bermudas, and I have taken tho opportunity of suggesting to your lordship that the cultivation, of the plant would employ a largo number of prisoners of either sex, and produce an article that would be of great value. There are a number of specimens of the plant, and the way of cultivating it, at the Society of Arts. (Signed) Wilson Saliebury." The very fact that this letter was retained in the records of the British Colonial Office, aaid has been preserved to this date, is ovidenco that tho Colonial Office gave the proposal its consideration. Indeed there is very positive evidence of this fact, for on 14th February of the same year there is a minute in the Colonial Office records to the effect that the Government requested Lord Bathurst to direct Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor of Australia (New Holland) to "enquire into the subject- tif the New Zealand flax, of which we have heard eomething, and to get specimens of it sent Home." Thi,» was done, but there is nothing in the records to show that anything came of the matter. But in Australia the cultivation of the plant was undertaken in earnest under directions from the Colonial Office. "In | 1824," we read, "Lord Bathuret granted £800 for the purchase of flax seed to try the experiment of its cultivation in New South Wales. Mr. T. A. Curtis was appointed to be in charge of the experiment." But the experiment was not a success, for later on it is recorded that owing to the heat the seed would not yield. The sum of £856 wa* spent on the experiment. Meanwhile, other experiments were undertaken at Home, at the Woolwich Naval Arsenal, in the manufacture of rope for ship purposes. The fibre, of course, was that , which wa« obtained from the New Zealand natives, and produced by them, a finer material than that produced nowadays by the mechanical process. The tests were exhaustive, and the reports were favourable, and much, of the material was subsequently used. An attempt was made to open up a regular supply with traders, out it is recorded that the Australian Goveri nor, who was the head of all colonial enterprises in that day, replied that it would not pay to send it Home unless the duty on foreign flax (that obtained ,from 'the Baltic) was largely increased. t The duty on colonial flax was 8s 4d per ton, apd the Board of Trade would not recommend its removal. But we can go further back than Sir Thomas Brisbane's time^in the Australian annals, and seek for • attempts to make profitable the cultivation of the New Zealand flax. In 1810 Governor Maccjuarie offered a bounty for the culi tjvation of flax in New South WaJes. It was grown, " but the demand was very limited, and the cultivation declined." A good deal of this flax came from the Auckland province, where, in the early days, ships used to go for supplies of spars for the navy. The Tfeames River and its vicinity was the locality mostly visited, and parties used to penetrate some distance inland. But it is also certain that traders to the Cook Straits' localities who came in contact with the Maoris there, purchased largely of fibre, and no doubt much of it came from the awampa around Foxton and Shannon.