The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-04-23

l from three TO eleven feet long. some
J times even reaching fifteen feet In the
middle there rises each year above
them all stout stem, which branches
into many flowers. These are of dull
crimson color. and are filed so pIen-
teously with nectar that they attract
birds as well as bees.
Phormium tenax grows wild in all
sorts of places, but thrives. best on deep
moist soils which are almost swamps,
In the North. where the railways pass
through miles of fen country. the farm
err points out to his fellow traveller that
here the land is poor and not worth
draining because no fax is visible but
/ out yonder, where the green blades rise
dIspersedly a foot or two above the
water, the soil is rich. Drain it, and
the flax plants will thicken and grow
to giant size, and no more profitable
crop need be wished for Substantial
fortunes have been made of recent
years in fiax-mi1ling, and the rise in
the value of fax land has given thou
sands of pounds TO men who knew
enough to buy betimes.
The oldtine Maoris dressed the fibre
by hand with a pawa shell. To dress
/ the fibre is really to undress il by
scraping off its green coat. or cuticle
It is done now by machinery. In the
stripper the leaves, as they are fed in
to the machine by hand, pass between
a drum and a beating bar both
of steel. Projections on the drum
strike the leaves against the beating
bar, and thus knock away the cuticle
/ There are many types of shippers, but
| Mr.. G. ]. Fulton, the Governments
Chief Fibre Expert. admits that not
one of them leaves the fibre so perfect
as when it was laboriousIy scraped by
the Maoris with their shells. He proves
the point by showing a specimen Of
/ thir work beside that of the mills.
| Without some such machinery the COM
mercial use Of Phormium tenax would
amount to very little. but there is evil
IDENTIFY fortune in store for the man
who can devise the kind of stripper
fthat every intelligent flaxmiller desires.
/ Many experimenters have tried chem
ical processes for removing the cuticle.
| but MIR. Fulton says he has not yet
/ Investigated one that does not weaken
! the fibre.
After being stripped the fibre is
washed and spread out in the paddocks
TO bleach and dry. Then 1t is brought
| back to the mill and put through the
scutcher. The beaten scutcher is some
| thing like a butter churn. The re-
yolving heaters strike the flax against
d concave surface and thus clear away
all the coarse waste matter that still
adheres TO it. In the drum heckle
scutcher, bluntIy pointed projections on
a revolving drum operate on the fax,
instead of the beaters Of the other
machine The action is a sort of rough
combing. and the result is a hank of
soft, silky fax on the one hand. and a
quantity of frizzly, frowsy tow on the
other. The watcher beside this kind
of scutcher gains an insight into the
meaning Of the word "heckle" as APP
piled to a political orator.
After the scutching, the fibre is made
up into hanks of the correct size, and
these are tied up together into bales
and sent to the grading depot at the
port. where they are to be shipped for
England, America, Europe, or Japan.
Grading, in the opinion of those in
a position to know. has saved the in
dustry. Before grading was made
compulsory. some sour or five years
ago, the market was in danger Of be-
ing utterly spoilt by the quantities
Of badlY-dressed fibre, which were be-
ing sent away by inexperienced miilers.
The flax industry is still in its in
fancy. The defects Of the machinery
have already been noticed, but it is
also a certainty that the fibre might
be employed for a number Of purposes
by no means fully explored as yet. At
present it is chiefly used for making
the binder Irvine used with harvesting
machinery, but all kinds of ropes and
coTdage are now made Of it in colonial
factories. Some people think that a
fabric as fine as silk might be woven
from it, and there have been many
experiments in this direction japan
is importing from e12,o00 to e14,o00
worth Of Phormium tenax every year,
and Mr. Sakamoto, one Of the two
japanese travellers who went through
The colony not long ago, told Mr.. Full
ton that his people were making it
into handkercliefs.
A glass case in the Governments
fax display in the recent New Yea
land International Exhibition contain
ed some Of the not voIuminous litera-
ture Of the New Zealand fibre indus
try. 4 report of the Royal Commission
Of 1870 reports of a late Parliamen-
tary Committee. and some Department
tai pamphlets. were there displayed.
But amidst this unattractive collection
was one thing Of real and suggestive
interest It was a quaint little book,
whose title page Opposite Hbelous
drawing Of a fax plant) ran thus: An
account of the Phormium tenax, or
New Zealand fax. printed on paper
made from its leaves with a postscript
on paper BY John Murray, F. : A.
F. L. : London. Henry Renshaw,
356 Strand 1886 Though seventy
years old the paper was still Of pas
sable whitish color and fairly good tex
ture. Since that time the idea Of maxi
ing paper from Phormium tenax seems
to have quite dropped.
But though paper be not made from
il there is no doubt that the fibre has
proved Itself useful in other ways.
There is a great and growing demand.
and the industry is profitable. The
FIBRE usually fetches in London more
than $50 ton. and the tow, formerly
a waste product, has sold for as much