The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 1866. FLAX.

New Zealander, Volume XXIV, Issue 2619, 11 April 1866, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 1866. FLAX.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aimVt at be thy Country's, Thy God’s, and Truth’s.

THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS.

It is a hopeful sign of the times, that the fact lias at last dawned upon some of the people of this Province, that town or suburban lots will not go on indefinitely increasing in value, or rather, price, by the mere act ot changing of han <ls; that the kind of labour involved I in such operations, is apt to be found suddenly unproductive ; I and that, after all, the truest, 1 safest, and most certain source of wealth, is honest labour applied to production, in agriculture, in mining, in fisheries, or in utilizing the raw materials of natural production, which, on every side, abound in this Province. We hail the revival of public interest in the industry of flax preparation as one indication of the happy change to which we have referred; and we think that his Honor the Superintendent and Mr, Finlay McMillan also deserve the thanks of the public for having skilfully- guided the newly awakened disposition to work, in a direction where humble and persevering labour may hope to find a moderate remuneration. One fact at least in respect to flax production the varied experience of the last twenty years has made patent, and that is, that, in the present state of things, and in view of the preparation of flax on a large scale, and by means of machinery, the one insurmountable difficulty has been, and is, that the raw material cannot be obtained in sufficient supply. Several projects of some promise have broken down in I'ace of this difficulty, and, notwithstanding the enthusiastic convictions which have been expressed in opposition to this view, the secret of failure, has, in every case, been here i'he project which we have said has revived public interest in the flax question, is of humble pretension, but, per- j haps, all the more reliable upon | that ground, and may be described as the domestic scheme: avoiding “fluted rollers,” cranks, brushes, steam-engines, and water-wheels, its simple machinery is an iron put , wherein to boil the flax leaves; the chemicals, which are needed to abstract the gum from the plant, are elaborated naturally in considerable quantity, and can be collected daily with a shovel, from the nearest cow- j shed. The process of cleaning ' the leaves is simple, audit is also, as we can testify, perfectly efficacious. M ill it he adopted and worked generally ? We hope and believe that it will; firstly, because we have passed out of that atmosphere of idleness and excitement, created by high wages, and an excessive war expenditure; and,secondly, because we have all begun to experience the healthful operation of the “ screw,” and are, j gradually, accepting the con- ! viction, that if we do not work, we shall most certainly want. On these grounds, we base our expectation that the domestic manufacture of Xew Zealand flax will prove, successful. Within reach of almost every one of the new cottier homes ! recently raised in the Waikato District, flax leaves can he obtained. If the amount prepared by each individual he not, as it cannot be, large, it may yet ho enough to keep the wolf from the door in the coming winter, and the aggregate of production may he so large as that “flax,” the commonest natural product of the A'ew Zealand Islands, may once more, as it did forty years since, mark a large figure on the list of exports. At any rate, until it shall have been proved by actual experience that bread cannot be won by those who will work at flax dressing upon Mr. McMillan’s plan, public uneasines respecting the prospects of labouring

people in the newly-settled districts of the confiscated territory may be somewhat appeased.