FLAX.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 362, 12 July 1869, Page 3

FLAX.

{From tha New Zealand Herald ) Not many years ago, in the good old pi)'in< times of peace, when our interesting savage friend — the Maori — was supposed to be merging from the cannibalistic grub into an approximation to a human being, when onethird of a stick of tobacco hired his services .a 9 guide for o. thieo days' journey, when a blanket was an object of ambition, and sub- - scquently when ha becime the possessor of plough and harrow, ship and mill, when the native trade wa-i an important matter, and Kirikiriroa fiour was one of the best brands, in almobt every kaiuga might be seen the Maori women with toe and pipi shell scraping .harakeke Maori for the trader, who supplied her with coarse prints, and now and theu ■»i(h just a soupcon of waipiro. The fl.vx thus prepared found a ready market ; the quality end dressing were good, but the manual labour required in the operation limited the supply, whilst the market being in the hands of a few, whs a very uncertain one. Stiil, however, Kaglan and Kawhia sent nway large quantities to Sydncy,and dressed flax was a very import- : ant item of exportation, but owing to one cause and another the trade fell through, and ■the Maoris ceased to work the flax except for their own immediate use. Then there came a time when men without menns or encouragement of any sort endeavoured to substitute some process by which chemistry or machinery should superse le the laboriousnesa of the toe and shell system. Occasionally the loc^l journals gave them a pat on the back, but the public took no interest in the matter, and unable to sustain the unequal contest, each enthusiastic projector or inventor hopc4essly abandoned the task. In thosa days Auckland was Arcadian in her simplicity ; immigration poured scores of small capitalists on her •shores, men with moderate incomes made New Zealand their home, and the addition of a few hundred pounds to tlie small amount in circulation, in so limited a population as we then bad, was more sensitively felt and more thoroughly pulsated through the province, tlu'n would now the same amount a thousand times told. New Zealand had a market, a limited one certainly, hut still a market in the Australias, the pro.duce of her farms was needed by the constantly increasing non-producing digging populations of Sydney and Melbourne ; but in course of time the additions to our capital, always small in their way began to diminish, trade began to languish, Tasmania and the dockatoo farmers of the other t-ide, cut into our markets, the Maori, tired of the arts of peace, dug up the hatchet, loans were obtained, a lavish governmental expeuditura .^succeeded, and a fake and hollow prosperity was the result. As dies out the excitement of the opium eater, so disappeared the shadow ■of that prosperity, leaving " not a wrack behind." Men supposed to he enormously wealthy, who had reused thousand* for properties of fictitious value could not sell them at any pric?, faces grew longer aud longer, ominous whisperings as to the stability of this or that firm were heard, occasionally, at first, afterwards frequently, occurred the crash of a falling house, the pack of cards had tumbled down. Credit was a thing of the past, money locked up in the hands of a few, fearing to use it, was unobtainable, the people were crying out, not for profitable employment, but for such as would enable them to win their bread, men who weeks before grasped hands in friendship, looked askant at each other aud spoke bitterly of, and to their neighbour. Auckland had gone up like a rocket and had come down like the stick. The crisis was upon her, and men, metaphorically speaking . — gasping for breath, naked where it was all to end, what was to become of us. Then it was, as has so frequently happened before, driven to it by dire necessity, meu placed their shoulders to the wheel and Jupiter helped them out of the mud. Unable to import to the extent we had hitherto done, we were driven to fall back upon our own resources, amongst other things attention was once again most seriously turned to the workiug up of flax as an article of export, improvements were made one after another in machinery. Government aid was afforded by the Superintendent who, having a large population in the country, wisely determined to retain the people, and whilst assisting them to live sought to make them improve the occasion, and out of the haraheke, hitherto pronounced stubborn andiuipraciicable,to produce the means of sustaining the unemployed and creating an export that should help to save the continual drain of gold that was going on. The first attempts were unsuccessful, men complained that they were unable to earn the means of a livelihood, but gradually machinery of a superior description was introduced, inventors busied their brains over the means of economically working up the raw material and at last drays and coasters began to find back loads from places they had hitherto returned from empty ; flax had its pi ice which was quoted, and English vessels began to get it as home freight, and now at the present time the demand exceeds the supply, England and the Australia* being ready to take auy amount that we can send them. "We have been led to make the above remark* from having been showa on Friday

last at the stores of Messrs Ogilvie, Campbell aud Co., some samples of flax prepared in a really very superior style, the best one being manufactured from the Ngaro, the others from the ordinary harakeke Maori, the former from the mill of Mr Wallis, the latter from that of Mes-rs McDonald. These gentlemen deserve great credit' fjr tha i jx :ellent style in which tin's fl*x has been got up ; they evince skill of a high or.ier in die successful result of their labours. Wo were alao shown some samples of flax from Cnuterbury, but they would not compare with those above mentioned, the preparation having evidently been of the ru.lest description, mid being full of tips contrasted most unfavourably with the others, which were of Raglan production. In that district we hear of fi e mills in full working order, anl of another one approaching completion, and wo are informed that it is the intention of certain capitalists to erect other substantial machinery in tho same quarter. The present price of the letter class of prepared fl-ix is a decidedly satisfactory one, frrwn £20 to &15, leaving a large margin for profit, after paying the mumfuc'.urer for his labour, and covering the cost of freight, shipment, interest of money, etc.; and as a consignment against consignments is infinitely preferable to sending nway hard cash for those goods which we must yet import. The larger the export the more the confi lenco of the English buyer, the better the chance of an increased demand, aud a better price for the article Further improvements and alterations too are likely to follow, when English machinists become eonviuee-1 that their efforts in this line are likely to be appreciated by our local manufacturers. Several gentlemen who take an interest in the matUr have been lately engaged in micro-' scopical investigation of the fibre, to ascertain whether or not it is injured by the processes at present in vogue; the result would appe vr to be satisfactory, as no indication of any injury is observable. Tae district of Raglan holds out peculiar inducements for this special branch of local industry, containing as it doe 3 many thousand acres of the different varieties of the plant, for the growth of which it* soil would seem to be peculiarly adapted, and ie must not be forgotten that in K>uvhia and Kaglan it possesses two ports affording immense facilities for ahipmeHt of the manufactured material. There is one phase of the question that must not be overlooked, and that is, the necessity for cultivation of the plant ; it will never do to exhaust it, in effect to kill the goose that lays the golden eg?. The Tihore affects a damp soil, but is said to grow on any, whilst the Ngaro prefers hilly ground, and it must be borne in mind that it is by no means an exhausting crop, the refuse, after preparation, constituting its best and most fitting manure. For many years in Ireland, a country peculiariiy adapted for the growth of flax, it was customary to insert in leases a clause expressly stipulating that flux should not be grown as a crop, but of late years the prejudice against it has yielded to the result of scientific research, and it having been found that what was left after utilising the plant, on being returned to the ground, required but little assistance to keep it in heart, the prohibitory clause gradually dropped into disuse. Is it not quite within the bounds of possibility, that it would be cheaper in the end, if instead of sending home prepared flax and importing gunny bags, wool packs, stair and other carpets, we were to commence to manufacture them ourselves out of the material we have lying ready to our hands ? Surely it is in every way superior to jute for such purposes, whilst for cordage it is admirably suited, a use to which jute— owing to its tendency to snap when twisted, and its perishable nature when brought into contact with water (neither of which failings is to such an extent attributed to flax) can not be applied. In fine we hardly know yet what can be ma le of our flax, the trade in it is only in course of development, but we augur a great future for it, if only due precautions are taken first to secure a constant supply, and secondly to direct our unwavering attention to improvement in machinery and to the selection of the best varieties of the plant for the purposes of further cultivation.