N.Z. FLAX

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 September 1927, Page 11

N.Z. FLAX

NEW USES FOE FIBRE’ At a meeting of flax-planting companies, held in Auckland recently, the chairman, Mr H. G. Milburn, speaking of the possibilities of the extended uses of flax fibre, said: — “Scientists now state definitely that the fibre can be cottonised, that is, made spinnable for the finer yarns. It is particularly suitable for the manufacture of cigarette paper, high grade bank paper, and the finest artificial silk. Samples of sacking and hessian have already been turned out in the Dominion, and I recently had an opportunity of submitting one of these samples of hessian to the manager of a large cordage and rope factory in Australia. He was much impressed with it, and expresses the opinion that it was the finest hessian he had seen and much superior to the imported article. It should be mentioned that this hession and sacking were manufactured in New Zealand from mostly stripper slips with a percentage of tow, the cost' of the raw material being considerably less than half that of jute from which the iinported sacks are manufactured. Sacks to the value of over £600,000 are imported annually into the Dominion, and it is pleasing to know that steps are already being taken to secure the? capital ne-

cessary to establish a local industry and use the locally produced fibre. “A Dunedin resident has already stated that he can produce tory wool pack from our fibre, Under a process which renders it free froni all stray fibres, which have given so much trouble to wool growers in the past New Zealand and Australia use annually approximately ten million yards of fabric in these wool packs, and if able to be manufactured locally in New Zealand and Australia from our New Zealand flax, this alone would give employment to some 1000 hands. The many increasing uses for our New Zealand hemp must tend to increase the market value of our fibre, and experts agreed that the outlook for the industry has never been brighter.”