FLAX VERSUS JUTE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 58, 18 September 1928, Page 10

FLAX VERSUS JUTE

SACKS AND WOOLPACKS CLAIM FROM DUNEDIN (By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening f>ost.") DUNEDIN, This Day. If experiments with New Zealand flaxN continue to be as successful as they are at present it is probable that a valuable new industry will be established in the Dominion. A "Star" reporter was shown a useful-looking grain sack of unusual strength recently made in Dunedin from locally-grown flax. It is claimed to be the first of its kind made in New Zealand. This bag was introduced by patented methods, and it is the outcome of extensive research which has had for its object the substitution of specially-treated phormium fibre for jute, thus establishing (lax as a base material for sacks, woolpacks:, hessians etc. Judging from the results so i'ar obtained it would seem that the expenditure and trouble taken in the matter have been amply justified. The new article is claimed to be superior in every way to jute sacking, and since it is stated that the cost to farmers of the finished goods will not exceed that of the imported material, the value of this research to the Dominion can be readily imagined. When discussing the matter with Mr. Coghill, who has been conducting the experiments, the reporter was informed that the process employed also applied to coir for the production of sacking from this material, and that the wqolpacks so made were non-frayable and quite free from the loose fibre trouble. The annual value of jute goods imported into this country was £750,000, while Australia spent about £4,000,000 every year on the same materials. It looked as if the monopoly of this trade so long enjoyed by India was about to be seriously challenged.