FLAX.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 143, 30 November 1844, Page 155

FLAX.

[We are indebted to the New Zealand Spectator for the following letter, written by a gentleman in Belfast, to a merchant in London.]

" Belfast, April 20, 1844. " Dear Sir — I am sorry that after waiting so long, I am still unable to give you any satisfactory account of the sample of New Zealand flax you sent me some time ago. " I gave part to several spinners, who have promised to try what they could make of it ; hut in this, as in every instance in which I have come in contact with them, they evince much apathy, not being able to see what advantage they can derive from the improvement of this flax. For this indifference I was in a great measure prepared, by their treatment of me in my flax operations at . I could not get one to examine specimens of my flax, till I sent them to each of their mills. By far the most intelligent amongst the body is Mr. J. Herd man, who had long ago taken an interest in this New Zealand flax, by procuring samples, and getting them tried in various ways, without however succeeding in bringing the article to such a state as to be useable in the mills, until he fell in with a man in Armagh, about thirty miles from this, who hit upon some plan of bringing it out the finest flax I ever saw in my life, judging from specimens shown me by Mr. Herdman. Mr. Herdman did not believe that it was the same sample he had given this man to experiment upon ; and, to put the matter beyond doubt, some sticks were given to him, to be operated upon in half their length, leaving the other half the original state, the like success attended this trial. The poor fellow was quite elated with his discovery, and framed a prospectus for a Joint Stock Company, stipulating for shares and a salary of £2,000 for conducting the works, which were to be set a going on a large scale: all this got him into debt, and nearly into prison, from which latter only a speedy flight saved him, and he has not been heard of since. Mr. Herdman tells me that a person in Liege (Belgium) has also the secret. To find out what this is, I rather think a spinner is not the proper person, at least in Ireland ; and I should say a practical chemist would be much better. The great difficulty is to get the flax into a fine state without extracting the vegetable oil."

The Late M. Lafitte.— -The Presse pays the following tribute of praise to the memory of M. Lafitte : — " M. Lafitte was the son of a carpenter of Bayonne, and from being a -simple clerk in the house of Perregaux, came first a partner in, and afterwards the chief of the firm, and was successively named (as early as 1809) Regent, and later Governor, of the Bank of France, member of the Commercial Tribunal of Paris, and President of tbe Chamber of Commerce. We cannot forget that M. Lafitte did not hesitate at tbe time of the first occupation of Paris, in 1814, to propose to the heads of the Bank, assembled at the Hotel de Ville, to pay, by means of a voluntary subscription, which the state should reimburse when it could, the war contribution about to be levied on Paris, and was the first to sign the resolution. We cannot either forget that, after the capitulation of Paris, in 1815, when the soldiers imagined that they had been betrayed, when the army was lefc without bread, for want of funds in the treasury, M. Lafitte came forward and lent 2,000,000f. to the city without requiring any guarantee ; we cannot forget either, that at the period of the commercial crisis, which occurred in 1818, M. Lafitte evinced for the third time, the same generosity, which never suffered an occasion of manifesting itself to escape.