The Evening Star SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2042, 20 November 1869, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1869.

We learn from the Lyttelton Times that the Commissioners are appointed to whom is remitted the task of obtaining every possible information regarding the cultivation and manufacture of New Zealand flax. We had prepared their questions for insertion in the Evening Star before their publication in the Daily Times, but as they have appeared in the columns of our contemporary, we will content ourselves by directing public attention to their importance. From the interest taken in the manufacture of the flax fibre and the reports from abroad, it is plain that the preparation and exportation of New Zealand flax will become a very important branch of industry. Whether any one has yet succeeded in giving to its fibre anything approximating to its possible commercial value is very doubtful. There was much variety in the appearance of the specimens we have seen. Some of them were not uniform in color, some were very coarse in fibre, some were fine and carefully prepared, but we have not seen one sample that did not present more or less of the appearance of a groping after the necessary knowledge. Unfortunately nowa days this empirical process of reaching perfection will not do. The world diffei’S very much fi'om what it was half-a-century ago. In past days the introduction of a new product into use was a slow affair and men could afford to wait and to watch, to spend years of thought and experimental toil because of the inexpensive processes followed. The Natives could live and contrive to prepare their flax with the aid of a flint. But when machinery is applied the matter wears a different aspect. A wider market is necessaxy to give a good return for capital invested, and the article is brought into competition with products long known, carefully prepared, and the capabilities of which are accurately ascertained. The nonsuccess of many who have attempted to overcome the difficulties of the preparation. of flax points to the readiness with which a certain speculative class of minds rush upon enterprises with very imperfect notions of what requires to be done. They see the end to be gained, but are too impatient to tread surely the intermediate steps necessary. The ground looks fair and level,so they do not observe that it is boggy. What the Commissioners are about to do is what should have been done in the first instance by everyone who embai'ked in flax-preparing. They are instituting an examination into the nature of the plant, its mode of growth, the means of cultivating it, and the best method of manufacture. Under the head of growth and cultivation, the subjects of inquiry may be summarised thus : Names of different species, special uses, whether propagated by seed, the best soil, mode of cultivation, time of year for planting and cutting, distances between rows and plants in rows, period of growth, successive cuttings, signs of fitness of leaf for manufacture, mode of cutting, labor and manure, time of gathering seeds, sowing, transplanting, &c. Now it is very plain that, although there may be some light thrown on these subjects by a few savans in botany, the attention given to the plant hitherto has not been such as to suggest satisfactory answers to all these questions. The manufacture has been thus far prosecuted without any attention having been given to the cultivation of the plant. It is found in its wild state covering large areas of ground and has been cut down with very slight reference to anything else than immediate requii’ements. Whether those who have usually been employed to procure supplies for the mills have ever given a thought about the future growth of the plant, is vexy doubtful. Nor do the conditions on which the Waste Land Board give leave to cut flax tend to foster care in that respect. There is usually appended to the usual permission, “Not to have the “ exclusive light to cut.” With not even a lease of the ground, and with no other than the mere right to get what ho can in a scramble for supply of material for manufacture, there is no inducement for care not to destroy plants in which a man has only a momentary interest; no inducement to take the slightest pains to perpetuate their growth. That which is Ids one season may be anothei’’s the next, weaker and less productive after each successive harvest, until through pure exhaustion the ground refuses to feed the plant, and the machinery and buildings stand idle—monuments of the shortsightedness of the Government whose regulations necessarily involved the result. We should like to have seen, in the questions put by the Commissioners, some clearer acknowledgment of the methods suggested by modern science than are apparent in

them. The only approximation to them appears in the request that “ small specimens of any peculiar leaf “ for microscopic examination may be “ sent.” This is very well as far as it goes, and points to a decision as to the most desirable species of flax. But there are other matters on which information is asked that can be to a very great extent satisfactorily answered by chemical analyses of the plant and of the soil in which it is observed to thrive best. It is very odd that up to this time agriculturists neglect so obvious a method of resachiug correct conclusions. This seems to us the very first inquiry that ought to be instituted when the best manure for any plant has to be ascertained. Many experiments prove abortive that the slightest scientific investigation would have shown could not succeed. When first the Phormium tenax was made known in Europe, it was thought it would readily thrive in different parts of Europe. It was tried in France, Ireland, and Great Britain, but it refused to grow. Accurate observation would have shown the cause. It is now beyond a doubt that it will have to be cultivated if the supply is to be kept up ; the maxim must therefore be borne in mind, “If a (flax) farmer is “ always taking out, and putting no- “ thing in the ground, it must at “ last become empty or exhausted.” Chemistry will point out what must be put in.