RHEEA OR CHINA GRASS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3094, 5 January 1871, Page 4

RHEEA OR CHINA GRASS.

• * We learn from an official document, signed by the Secretary to the Government of India, that that Government, after communication with various agricultural societies in India, and with persona interested in the Bubject, have arrived at the conclusion that the only real obstacle to the development of an extensive trade in the fibre of rheea, or China grass, is the want of suitable machinery for separating the fibre and bark from the s.tem and the fibre from the bark, the cost of effecting such separation by manual labor being great. The demand for the fibre is already large, and no doubt might be extended with reduced prices, and there is a practically unlimited extent of country in India were the plant could be grown. The requirements of the case appears to be some machinery or process -capable of producing, with the aid of animal, water, or steam-power a ton of fibre of a quality which shall average in value not les,s than £50 per ton in the English market, at a total cost, all processes of manufacture and allowance for wear and tear included,* of not more than £15 a ton. The said processes are to be understood to include all the operations performed after the cutting and transport of the place of manufacture, to the completion of the manufacture of fibre of the quality above described. The machinery mußt be simple, strong, durable, and cheap'; and should be suited for erection at or near the plantations, as the refuse is very useful as manure for continued cultivation. To stimulate the invention or adaptation of such machinery or process, the Government of India hereby offer a < prize of £5,000 for the machine and process that best fulfils all the requirements named above. Rewards of moderate amount will be given for really meritorious inventions, even though failing to meet entirely all the conditions named. Arrangements will be made by the Government of India for the supply of carefolly dried stems, and specimens of fibre separated from the bark, but subject to no other process, to mechanical firms and others desirous of competing, on application to the Secretary to the Government of India in the home department. All machinery, &c, must be brought by the competitors afc their own' charge to a locality which will be notified hereafter, probably in the Worth- weßt Pro« vincesor the Punjab, and there worked under the supervision of their own representatives for a sufficient time to enable the judges appointed by Government to determine -whether all the conditions named have been complied with. The prize machine is to be transferred, if required, to Government, at five per cent above cost price ; the patent right in any such machines to be also transferred, if required to Government on the latter securing to the patentee a royalty of five per cent on the cost price of all machines manufactured under the patent during its currency. One year from the date of this notice .will be allowed for the preparation of the machines/ and their transport to the locality named for the competition ; and the trials will then be made, and the decision of. the judges announced. If no invention of eufficientmerit ia received in the above named period to obtain the prize offered, the Government will continue to allow 'machines to be tendered for trial till the end of two years from the same date, after which, or on the award of the prize/ the offers herein made will be withdrawn.—" Gardeners' Chronicle,"