THE WATER OF LEITH FLAX AND BONE MILLS.

North Otago Times, Volume XI, Issue 359, 30 October 1868, Page 5

THE WATER OF LEITH FLAX AND BONE MILLS.

In response to an invitation, & number of gentlemen assembled at the Woodhaugh Flax and Bone Mill, Water' of Leith, yesterday afternoon, to witness tLe formal inauguration of a Flax Factory. The scheme was projected about five months ago, by Mr James Souness and several other gentlemen. A company was soon afterwards formed, premises built, and efficient machinery procured. The •phormium tenax grows in luxuriant wildness in the immediate vicinity of the mills, and arrangements have been made for its speedy and inexpensive conveyance, in large quantities, to the factor*. On its arrival there, it is passed through sets of malleable iron rollers, by which process the plant is divided into strings of flax, and the gum thoroughly extracted. The fibre is then thrown on rails to be bleached, and afterwards packed ready for trans u.ission to Great Britain, or the neighboring Colonies, where it undergoes further manipulation, and is finally prepared for conversion into matting, rope, and other materials. The Company, whose operations form the subject of this notice, already employ about a dozen persons at their flax factory, and use, weekly, from fourteen to fifteen tons of the raw material. Several innovations have also been introduced by them at their works. For instance, gearing instead of- belting, is used, in connection with the machinery, by which means the difficulties that invariably arose from the becoming detached or removed from the pulley, are now entirely obviated. The rollers, too, ire made of a material far stronger and more durable than those now in use at many other' similar establishments. 1 he proprietary, in consequence of the high rate of labor prevailing in this colony, consider it inadvisable, at present, to do more than cut, roll, and bleach the plant, thus throwing on those to whom it may b9 consigned in countries where labor is more abundant and less expensive, the responsibility of passing its final stages. The factory may be regarded as having been started as an auxiliary to the JBone~and Saw Mills, established by that spirited and enterprising colonist, Mr W. E. Douglas. — Daily Times.