Phormium Tenax.

Progress, Volume III, Issue 10, 1 August 1908, Page 335

Phormium Tenax.

There is a world of memories in the Latin name, another in the Maori ' " Harakeke, " and yet another in the vernacular ' ' Flax. ' ' To the Maori the plant meant clothing, fishing lines, nets, mats, baskets, fabrics galore, and cordage. For the European in his first wanderings it made packing possible and the stockwhip an irresistible driver. To the trader it gave large profits in the early days, when the tribes camped by the streams and lagoons to dress the lustrous fibre with the shell of the Pipi. Later, when the Fraser "stripper" came on the scene, millions of tons of the leaves were converted into rope and twine. The stripper whirred in valley and plain, the "scutcher" boomed, water wheels groaned, steam engines snorted, and the noise of profitable industry was everywhere. Then came a slump at the close of the sixties, and the day of manufacture was succeeded by the

period of experiments, and Royal Commissions. The former were of the blind order, the latter flourished in the light of science. Neither achieved any result. As mysteriously and as .suddenly as it had dropped, the world's demand rose again towards the end of the eighties, and the industry sprang up on the lines of Fraser stripper, scutcher, steam and water. A plodding few had remained faithful during the long interval, finding remuneration chiefly from Australian rope makers. They form the link between the two economic periods. In the second period the industry employed thousands of hands, sent the value of land (especially in swamps) up to very comfortable prices, raised the tonnage of the output to hundreds of thousand's of pounds, and did the same for the cash intake, with the difference that the pounds weight of the first were sterling- in the other. The Government established a system of grading and supplied graders and certificates. Now the second period of vigorous manufacture has in its turn fallen into slump.

The output ha* shrunk dreadfully, and hands are ever\ where idle, while the roar of the industry had almost sunk to a whisper. To let the industry die would be unthinkable. Two alternatives present themselves. Either must the cost of production be lessened, or the quality of the output must be bettered. For the first there is some room. We have expert evidence that buyers are dissatisfied with the grades of the output, which manifest carelessness of manufacture and that plentiful content with poor quality which is often the result of a steady run of comfortable prices. No doubt something could be done by attention to the point. But the industry will not be cured thereby. The evil is deeper seated. It is that for ropes and twines there are serious rivals in the world's field. We must improve quality. Now the special point about "Phormium Tenax" is that it is a fibre of a quality good for far better things than ropes and twines. The sole condition is the proper dressing.

That has been for the last sixty years an insoluble problem. When it is solved, Phormmm will take its place as one of the most dependable, valuable and inexpensive products m the agricultural list of the Dominion. Private enterprise has, by process of breaking many financial necks, proved that the problem is too much for the individual. It is a case for the State purse, and for the State command of the world's information, and the State's power of patient waiting, as well as consistent wide-scoped investigation, and determined well directed experiment. It would pay the State to get together and maintain a body of scientific experts to investigate this question, and to experiment in the direction of a machine or a process which will give the best qualities of Phormmm to the world. "Will the State do this, for the sake of the enormous advantage to agriculture certain to accrue from the systematic, widespread cultivation of the plant?