Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, APRIL 20, 1942. A WAR TIME RECOVERY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 April 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, APRIL 20, 1942. A WAR TIME RECOVERY.

many years of' struggle and neglect, the New Zealand flax industry, in these hectic days of war, has to some extent come into its own. On account of war developments, the demand for woolpacks made from phormium tenax threatens considerably to outpace the available supply. In reporting last week that the year’s business must be considered most satisfactory, the chairman of directors of New Zealand Woolpacks, Ltd. (Mr A. W. Press) also stated that he anticipated that 500,000 woolpacks would be produced in 1942 instead of a possible 900,000, due to a shortage of green leaf.

This state of affairs is the more ironic, and the more to be regretted, since phormium tenax is probably the most widelydistributed and prolific of all our native plants. In its wild state it grows from sub-alpinc heights to the verge of our sea-beaches, on all kinds of land. Probably it is not yet possible to say on what class of land flax can be grown most profitably. All credit of course must be given to those who have tried and are trying to develop the flax industry, but our national record in dealing with one of the most valuable fibre plants in the world is predominantly one of waste and neglect of opportunity.

Very little has been done in the way of the systematic development of the cultivation and manufacture of phormium tenax. Indeed, in the treatment of this undoubtedly valuable product the achievement of the pakeha compares unfavourably, all things considered, with that of the Maori. In the early days of settlement, a sample of Maori-dressed flax, sent to Lancashire, was there declared to be worth several times as much as machine-dressed fibre. In the ’seventies of the last century, too, tropical clothing made from New Zealand flax was found to stand up admirably to hard wear in the jungles of Most Africa.

At a time when the heed ‘for post-war industrial expansion is becoming ever more apparent, practical attention should be given to phormium tenax. It is potentially a material, not only for cordage, ropes and rough textiles, but for fine textiles. It has been demonstrated that it is possible greatly to increase the yield and improve the quality of fibre by the cultivation of plants of selected strains. Less headway has been made towards a solution of the problem of separating economically the ultimate fibres of phormium—these are of the fineness of silk, finer than those of any other fibre plant in the world —but in an. age of ceaseless technological advance difficulties of this kind exist only to be overcome. To say that the fully advantageous production and processing of phormium tenax calls for an enterprising extension of research and experiment is merely to say what is to be said of almost any other valuable product.