FLAX DRESSING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 2801, 28 January 1871, Page 3

FLAX DRESSING.

(New Zealand Herald) We have previously alluded in our columns to an invention just patented by Mr Olliyier, formerly of Canterbury pro- [ yince, and at present residing in Auck- ' land, for the preparation of flax. Our readers will remember that specimens of , the various species of flax prepared were , exhibited by Mr Ollivier, at a meeting of i the Canterbury Flax Association, and won the highest praise from everybody. It was i then stated that in no other previously i exhibited samples were the pnmmy and chaffy materials so completely removed. IMr Ollivier haß for some time lately been . through this province, and experimenting " '" upon our various flaxeß; and on SaturJ day, he called at our office with a number .of samples, some of which undoubtedly > surpass, in every respect, anything that , has yet been brought into Auckland. . That some method would eventually

c He discovered for preparing flax to com- » mand a high price in the English market i we have never doubted, and we are 7 really inclined to think that Mr Ollivier * may safely cry " Eureka !" It is well r known that one of the moat fatal draw--3 backs to a sample of flax in the English 0 market, is the presence of any red colour j in the fibre. We may at once say that, x from one end'of the leaf to the other, the 3 samples shown to us were as white as posr sible. In the process of preparation we 1 are informed that there is not a particle b of waste. The flax is not scutched, and • therefore no refuse is formed in the shape ■* of tow, which, in most cases, amounts to ' a third of the whole weight of the fibre, i A solvent is used, but we undertand that 3 it is of such a nature as to have no effect a whatever on the fibre. We inspected > samples of fibre from the following . varieties of flax:—Tukura, tuharu (this . kind the natives have never been able to work up, and by them and Europeans considered valueless, Mr Ollivier's method turns out an extremely fine and soft fibre suitable for weavr ing); tapoto (this is a splendid , sample, soft and elastic, long, white, i and even) ; awanga (one very fine and white); paritaniwha, and one or two , i coarser varieties. Besides these was a ■ sample of cabbage-tree fibre, very strong ► and fine, and the tow from which resem- » bles horse-hair in its feel," and would, we 1 should imagine, make excellent stuffing ! for beds. The tpitoi grass put through ; the same process looks like fine straw, | and the inventor believes that it would . prove of great value for the manufacture of paper. We shall watch with anxiety i the development of an invention which i promises to be of such great value. Competent judges pronounce the sample of i tapoto to be worth at least L 25 a ton in Auckland at the present time. As a proof of the high opinion entertained by the natives of the invention, we may say that a deputation of twelve influential chiefs waited on Mx,Ollivier, at Tauranga, accompanied by Mr C. O. Davis, and endeavoured to negotiate with 'him for instruction in his system. They stated that no Maori method of cleaning was so complete. ;