446
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

ships sailing out of Liverpool have for some time
past taken a ton or two; and as the Americans
universally prefer white ropes to brown, they will
probably become large consumers if they continue to
find it answer. This probability will be at once
evident, when it is mentioned that the annual con-
sumption of Manilla in America is, in round numbers,
15,000 tons, against only 5,000 tons in the United
Kingdom. Already some 800 bales of New Zealand
flax have been reshipped to North America, but with
what result we have not yet been able to learn.

It is estimated that seven-eighths of the best
samples of New Zealand flax sold have been used to
mix with Manilla, not altogether surreptitiously, but
in many cases to order, and as producing a cheaper
rope, strong and durable enough for certain purposes.
This latter has given satisfaction. We saw some
good New Zealand rope at Liverpool, such as is
supplied to the American ships; but at Glasgow we
had the opportunity of inspecting a stock of very
superior description, not greatly inferior to Manilla
in its bright colour and glossy appearance. The
general opinion is, that New Zealand flax, properly
dressed, will find a good market for making a ser-
viceable cheap rope, saleable at a price certainly not
below £37, its present quotation, Russian being now
£46, and Manilla £66. Provided the supply of flax
be of the quality above mentioned, the large rope-
makers of the North, (who are using it as an
established article of their trade, and are therefore
better able to judge of its qualities than those who
speak only by report, or after a single ineffectual
trial,) think that the colonists may calculate on a
large sale at from £30 to £35; but it must be free
from straw. The longer the flax is, the better. The
hanks or "strikes" in each bale should be all of the
same length, and the bale marked accordingly.

Attention to such matters greatly facilitates the
sale, especially as regards an article against which a
prejudice has been created by large shipments of an
inferior sort.

The cost of New Zealand flax places it entirely
beyond the reach of paper makers, who to a large
extent depend on the refuse of other trades. Esparto
grass from Spain, which, although scarce, can be
bought here at £8 a ton, is now most extensively used
in the manufacture of newspaper and book papers;
and although New Zealand flax would be useful for
giving it strength as a better class paper, and for
producing good papers by itself, yet the price would
be such as could never pay the colonists to export.
There is a wood pulp imported from Germany, and
New Zealand flax or tow might probably pay if
reduced to pulp and shipped in blocks at a low freight.
Blocks of any size would suit, but they must be
pressed free from water, and unbleached. It is
difficult to get makers to commit themselves to
anticipatory prices, but £18 to £20 is a probable
figure. Doubts are however suggested as to the pulp
keeping during so long a voyage, and we were advised
to recommend that, before shipping to the Home
market, parcels should be first sent for experiment to
the paper mills at Melbourne.

At Manchester we were glad to learn from a very
large house that New Zealand flax was being used
by several spinners, but on visiting them we found
that they one and all declared its inapplicability in
its present state for manufacturing purposes. Here,
as at Leeds, Dundee, and other places, every manu-
facturer we called on knew something of the article,
and many had tried it and found it unsuitable for
their purpose. They treated the term "flax " as a
misnomer, and declared that, so long as it retained its
harsh nature and inability to split, it was not adapted
for spinning purposes. At Kirkcaldy, Messrs. Lockhart
very kindly put a strike through their machinery to
convince us of its want of adaptation for spinning,
even as a substitute for low-priced jute bagging; and
everywhere else we were told, that all the while the
fibre broke short off like a stick, as it does as at present
prepared, it would prove unfit for their use. We
invariably narrated the advice which had been given
to the colonists, to ship their flax in a rough state,
trusting to British competition and science for
bringing it into consumption; and were as invariably
assured that the fibre must be softened and cleansed
from scurf during its colonial stage, numerous ex-
periments having shown it to be too late to do so after
it had reached England.

We should have been considerably disappointed
with the immediate future of New Zealand flax if we
had only taken with us samples of that prepared by
the colonists. We should have had to report that its
use was likely to be for some time confined only to
rope. But we had fortunately a small sample of flax
dressed by the Natives. It was by no means a superior
sample, very scurfy and far less silky than much we
have seen in the Colony. Every manufacturer seemed
struck with it. It completely answered all the
objections they had raised to the ordinary samples
we had previously shown them. There was but little
harshness in it; it was almost as soft as they could
wish; and the fibre broke feathery instead of square.
They doubted its being the same material, and on our
explaining the cause of the difference-that the Euro-
pean dressed the whole leaf, while the Native only
dressed one side of it-they expressed their conviction
that a market was open for any quantity, at a com-
paratively high rate. In Lancashire and Yorkshire
they did not hesitate to say £60. In Dundee the
largest canvas manufacturers named £50, and none,
however cautiously inclined, fixed a lower value than
£40 a ton. In one word, while the ordinary New
Zealand flax was considered useful only for rope, the
Native dressed was declared a very acceptable addition
by cotton, woollen, jute, and canvas manufacturers,
without a single exception. These all however
insisted, as the ropemakers did with respect to the
ordinary kind, that freedom from scurf was an
absolute necessity.

The discrepancy between the uses formerly ascribed
to New Zealand flax and that to which the supply
now in the market is put is thus explained, the
reports of former years being founded on the export,
which then wholly consisted of Native dressed. Upon
the latter kind, several of the manufacturers have
promised to experiment, if we can supply them with
a few cwts.; but at present, although I have searched
the London sale-rooms, I cannot find any.

Our attention was frequently drawn to the pro-
bable improvement which cultivation would produce,
and to the necessity for careful and varied experi-
ments being undertaken in the Colony as to the age
at which the leaf matures. The present practice of
cutting leaves of all ages indiscriminately, passing
them through the mill together, and packing them in
the same bale, is a great mistake, the fibres varying
in strength at different ages, as is evident to any one
who will take the trouble to test them individually in
a hank so prepared. Manilla takes three years to
come to perfection; and we are told that some hemp
lately imported, and made from one year old leaves,
was found to be almost useless.

From the foregoing, you will no doubt draw the
conclusion that there is no reason for the colonists
to be discouraged with New Zealand flax as a profit-
able article of export. It has at present to contend
against a prejudice arising from inferior shipments in
the first place, and kept up by the large quantity of
the same character still arriving; but if care is taken
to prepare only a bright well-cleaned article, it will
work into a large and steady consumption, at re-