FLAX DRESSERS AND FLAX MACHINES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1163, 6 August 1867, Page 5

FLAX DRESSERS AND FLAX MACHINES.

To the Editor of the New Zealact Herald. g rß| The scheme which you have propounded in •cour issue on Saturday laat, and again in that of todsy will, I am conTinced, if cairied out* do much to alleviate the present distressed conditi#n of the unemployed in this city and province. 1 intend being present at the meeting at the City Mission building, in Durham-street, on "Wednesday eveniDg nest, and shn)l probably then state my ideas with respect to this very important matter. What I could wish would be that on that occasion, as many as possible of those of our leading citizens who are wont to interest themselves actively on behalf of the working classes will be presort, arid that from am"n» them two or more, who will really work, will allow their names to be placed on a Committee of man»g<v ment in conjunction with as many pract-cal working men, or men who have bean working nren, at some time. Then let proper officers bo appointed, and tno public be canvassed for subscriptions, and you will find many liberal hands and hearts to BBsist with money and other aids. You very truly say that it will not only be those assisted with the machinery, and thus enabled 10 earn an independent and comfortable living who will be benefitted but the general publio. The tra.'e of Auckland, will be benefitted, and that to no small extent. Fifty men, earning 5s a day each, will produce out of what is now left to waste, as valueless, a sum of £75 per week, which possibly will as an article of export bring into the province weekly a sum of £100, not a trifle in itself, considering how few exports we have. But this is only the Email grain of mustard seed. Only squat theße men on flax land, and show the public at large that these flax fields will enable men to make goodwages, and you will eslalish quite as useful an institution as a gold diggings, and quile as permanent a one. Moreover, the more the flax is ■worked the more likely we are to get such improvements discovered in. the way of working it, as to render it not worth £30 a ton at home, but £60 and even £70. it is, too, necessary that a certain number be at once started in the work, so as to produce a certain quantity of flax weekly or monthly, and so started S3 to ensure a continuance in the supply. I am informed on good authority that if forty tons per month can .be regularly shipped to one firm in England, io thoroughly are they satisfied of its value, that they will go to a gr® a t expense in having machinery made properly adapted to working it up. They will not go the large expense necessary unless they can be sure of a regular supplyAt the present time, as an auxiliary to the goldfields, flax dressing will be of very great Taluo. Hundreds, peihapa thousands, (there are many now not earning a living on the Weit Coast) will goto the Thames' gold-field, who, from no fault of their own will not succeed as .gold diggers, for gold seeking is after all a lottery - on which though there axe very many prizes there are more blanks. These xnen will have the flax fields to fall back upon. There, there will be no rich prizes, hut at the same time no blanks. All who will work jaay win gold, or what will procure it. Trusting the movement set on foot may be happily and Buccessfu'ly earned out —I am, &c., • J.D.F. Auckland, August sth.