NEW ZEALAND FLAX

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW ZEALAND FLAX

BY KOTARK

early history

New Zealand flax is in the news again. Japan wants to try out its cultivation on a big scale, and the British Admiralty are wondering whether they ought not to investigate further its potentialities as a rope and hawsermaker. It is one hundred and sixty-one years since Cook announced its existence and merits to the world, and prophesied that it would in the future supply the navies of Europe with their sails and cordage. In the meantime the sail has almost vanished from the seas, and the sailor, in the old sense, has gone with it. For some reason, in spite of all men's praise and the most optimistic auguries, our flax has never taken the part in the service of man for which its qualities and its availability seem so evidently to qualify it. Bayly, who was astronomer on the " Adventure" in Cook's second voyage, and on the " Discovery" on his third, recorded in 1773 that they had found flax "in great plenty." " The finer sort," he says, " resembles the European flax, but is vastly superior both for beauty and strength; of this they make the ahoo and fishing lines which are twisted the very same as ours, and they knit their nets using the same knot as we do." The enthusiasm of the Cook men soon attracted attention in England. Sir Joseph Banks took a considerable quantity of dressed flax to London and it won approval in scientific and naval circles. New South Wales But things moved slowly in those days. Possibly the men most likely to have the power of developing the new industry were already committed to supplies of fibre from other sources. Still, in 1783, when James Maria Matra issued his proposal to establish a settlement in New South Wales " to atone for the loss of our American colonies," he laid special emphasis on the possibilities of the flax trade. " I must not omit," he wrote in his proposal, " the mention of a very important article which may be obtained in any quantity if this settlement be made proper use of, which would be of very considerable consequence both among the necessaries and conveniences of life. I mean the New Zealand hemp and flax plant, an object equally of curiosity and utility. By proper operations it would serve the various purposes of hemp, flax,an<l silk, and it is more easily manufactured than any one of them. In naval equipments it would be of the greatest importance; a cable of the circumference of ten inches would be equal in strength to one of eighteen inches made of European hemp. Our manufacturers are of opinion that canvas made of it would be superior in strength and beauty to any canvas in our own country. The threads of this plant are formed by nature with the most exquisite delicacy, and they may be so minutely divided as to be small enough to make the finest cambric. Tn colour and gloss it resembles silk." Three years later Lord Sydney, in his official proposal to establish a convict settlement in New South Wales, quotes Matra almost verbatim, and insists that the control of the flax supplies woidd be of " great consequence to us as a naval power." The determination to transport convicts to New South Wales seems to have been reached, partly at least, because of the nearness of the unlimited supplies of New Zealand flax. It was New Zealand's first contribution to imperial policy. Norfolk Island Philip, who in 1787 led the expedition to establish the new colony, made it clear that he was not going to neglect the possibilities of flax. It was notenough to make provision for supplies from New Zealand; he had definite instruction to import the plant itself and to arrange for its cultivation in New South Wales. But apparently little could be done. Philip had his hands full enough in all conscience, and there was a subsidiary convict station to be organised at Norfolk Island. At Norfolk Island it was discovered that the New Zealand flax grew in great abundance.

Lieutenant-Governoj- King was fidl of enthusiasm and energy, hut all his attempts to produce a satisfactory fibre from the local flax proved abortive. His convicts could or would not acquire the knack of it. He decided that the only possible solution was the imnortntion into Norfolk Tsland of two New Zealanders to show his craftsmen how the thing was? done. Lieutenant Hanson in the " Daedalus" was deputed to kidnap two Maoris from the Bay of Islands. With infinite stealth he made his capture and sailed away in triumph to hand his trophies over to King. But he had mismanaged the business after all. The two Maoris turned out to be, one a tohunga and the other a warrior, and neither knew anything about flax-dressing, which they declared to be a woman's occupation. It has been suggested that they knew more than they were prepared to admit, but decided to conceal their knowledge because they judged it better not to spoil a pleasant holiday by the intrusion of quite unnecessary work. King accompanied them on their return to New Zealand, and found himself in a very pretty complication when he was asked by authority to explain his temporary abandonment of his post. Ho must have cursed the day when he first became interested in New Zealand flax. Demand and Supply

Still the flax fibre was much sought after, and many a ship picked up a cargo on the coast. The Maoris wanted firearms and could secure them only in return for flax. The concentration 011 the new industry diverted their energies from the cultivation of food supplies, "with disastrous results. The ropes made in Sydney were found to be the toughest and most serviceable in every way for the whalers. There seems to have been only one complaint about their quality. The Sydney hangman, who was also the wielder of the cat-o'-nine-tails, protested to the Governor against the use of flax for his flogging implements. It was, he said, far too soft and pliant. It made no impression on the. hardened backs of the convicts. Tt actually took thirty blows to draw blood. It was useless trying to maintain discipline with a silky lash that gave a caress rather than a blow*

I suppose the hangman had his way and a more serviceable instrument of correction was placed at his disposal. Anyway, the flax had struck its blow for humanitarianism, and refused to be debased to the uses of an inhuman convict system. There seems to have been the shadow of failure over all the grandiose schemes for its subjection to the uses of men. It was to clothe the convicts. In a finer form it was to take the place of silk. But it achieved none of these things, though faith in its potentialities never wavered. How it won for a season royal patronage I shall deal with in a later article.