FLAX.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1506, 19 March 1861, Page 2

FLAX.

The first session of the new Provincial Council ■will necessarily be a short one — necessarily so, because the meeting of the General Assembly cannot long be postponed. This is the only reason why we now call the attention of the members to the desirability of obtaining a Select Committee, as early as possible in the session, to consider if any aid can be rendered to Messrs. Bentham and Storey in their flax works — such a question is a most legitimate one, as evidenced by the rewards held out, during several years past, under the sanction of the General Government. Messrs. Bentham and Storey, being men of no capital, are unable to complete the work they have been engaged on for some months past, as satisfactorily as is desirable; and efforts were being make the other day to raise a trifling loan (£IOO or £200) to purchase and fit up a small steam engine required to work the machinery already erected. We have seen their samples and listened. to their explanations, and think their method one of such simplicity and expedition aa to be highly worth atf

couraging. We have seen samples and listened to sanguine experimentalists many times before ; yet because others have failed, it does not follow that Messrs* Bentham and Storey will dp so to. Some may think it more a matter for private enterprise than public aid ; but looking to the" example of the General Government and to the source of .; yealth which a remunerative method off preparing the indigenous flax would •'■grove,' we think we are fully justified iii" bringing the matter at once under attention.