PROGRESS REPORT OF THE FLAX COMMISSIONERS. 5

its finer quality. The Native-dressed has been in such uncertain supply, it never fetched anything like
what it would if sent in large and regular quantity.

With regard to rope-making, I have to depend on information from others, which I have been at a
good deal of trouble to get from the best sources, and the result is, that rope made from fairly
good flax will bear as great a strain as any other, and it appears to be wearing well for a time; it then
goes all to pieces almost at once, like as if cut up. Whenever a thread gives in a strand, it appears to
cut the others right off ; and, from microscopic examination of old rope, it appears to be worn more
from the casing round the small fibres giving way and cutting the fibres short off than from any
other cause ; and in salt water this casing seems to dissolve in time, and leave the fibres loose, and
the rope, as you may say, rotten. In rope made from flax of the very best quality, in which this
casing has been well broken up, the spinning of the yarns, if they are done fine enough, twists
the small fibres hard up together, and it then makes a very pliable, strong, and lasting rope; and it
is only this kind that will ultimately fetch a price worth troubling about.
Many of the hard-rope makers like the casing unbroken, as it hackles and works easier for them,
if perfectly clean from scull, but then they want to buy at a low price.

What ever will be done with the brown hard rubbish you Canterbury people in particular are
sending in such profusion, I can't think; the paper-makers say it is not near as good as Esparto grass
at £8 per ton.

I should not advise you to send any of the ordinary kinds, unless you can afford to sell a
fair quality at from £20 to £25 per ton, and wait your market. Let me strongly advise you to stick
to the best qualities, especially that for spinning purposes, if you can manage it; the sale for that will
be unlimited. Don't touch the rubbish, either to manufacture or send home; it is a great drug in the
market, and will be lower, unless some new use can be found for it.

No. 5.

EXTRACT from a LETTER of Mr. J. R. REES, of Rangitikei, dated 29th November, 1870.
FROM close observation of this land (clean burnt four years ago last February), I find that each fan
has produced two leaves each year, as under :-

Length-First year's growth, 5 ft. 6 in.; leaf now 54 months old.
" Second year's growth, 5 ft. 9 in.; leaf now 42 months old.
" Third year's growth, 6 ft.; leaf now 30 months old.
" Fourth year's growth, 6 ft. 6 in.; leaf now 18 months old.

So that the leaf of only eighteen months old has the advantage over the four-year old leaf. These
measurements were taken from the fan as pulled out of the ground, and cut at such distance from the
root as would be required for manufacture. The outside leaf on each stem (or four-year old) was very
much spotted, and unfit for manufacture. The three-year old was also spotted, and exhibited signs of
decay; but the two-year old was a fine strong leaf without blemish, and the sort of leaf we have found it
the easiest to prepare. The eighteen-months leaf was hardly fit to work, the fibre being hardly firm
enough. In my opinion, the leaf at from twenty-four to thirty months old is in its best stage for
manufacture, although leaves of eighteen months' growth make good soft fibre of six feet long, but not
so strong.

These observations were made upon medium flax land (wet toe-toe flats).

No. 6.

A LECTURE On the MANUFACTURE of NEW ZEALAND FLAX, delivered before the Auckland Institute,
July 12, 1870, by Captain F. W. HUTTON, F.G.S.

It was not until the year 1869 that New Zealand Flax began to be known in the London market; for
although it had been exported to England for many years previously, it was only shipped in small
quantities at a time and sold privately, so that few manufacturers knew anything about it except from
report. Ever since the foundation of the Colony the value of the plant has been recognized, and many
people have spent considerable sums of money in trying to produce from it a fibre that could be sold
at a profit. Failure, however, followed failure, until at last, in 1867, a machine was produced which
was brought so far towards a state of perfection that it reduced the time and cost of producing the
fibre to such an extent that it was apparent that, where circumstances were favourable, Phormium fibre
could be produced at a profit. I do not here mean to attempt to trace the early history of this
manufacture, nor to discuss the question as to whom belongs the credit of inventing the present
machine; my object is to look forwards and not backwards to explain the system at present in use,
and to point out where improvement seems most wanted.

All our knowledge is derived from observation and experiment. Observation or the noticing of
occurrences, may be either the haphazard observation of things that happen to fall in our way; or it may
be the scientific observation of examining closely and minutely those things that we desire to have infor-
mation about. Experiment, or the noticing of effects produced by causes under our own control, may
also be either the haphazard experiment of trying what will be the effect produced by any agent that
happens to be easily available; or it may be the scientific experiment where the experimenter has
carefully considered what is the effect he wishes to produce, and what is the agent most likely to fulfil
his purpose.

In all the arts and manufactures these two methods have been followed, unconsciously perhaps, in
arriving at the processes to be employed, in order to produce the best results. Haphazard observation
and experiment come first. They are the means employed in the earlier stages, and by all savages and
uncivilized nations. Scientific observation and experiment follow after, when civilization has trained
the minds of men to inquire more curiously into cause and effect. Haphazard observation, when