FLAX COMMISSIONERS.

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fermentation, was no doubt discovered ages ago by haphazard observation. Scientific observation has shown that the original object for which flax was retted—namely, the separation of the fibres from the woody tissue —is not in reality so important as its further object of separating the ultimate fibres from one another ; and; in order to avoid the delay and loss occasioned by retting, scientific experiment has invented machines to detach the fibre from the wood. But all these machines have proved failures, because science cannot discover any process equal to retting for separating ultimate fibres; all it has done is to improve on the process, and reduce the time required for the operation. On the other hand, science is sometimes able in a few years to arrive at results which would have taken centuries of haphazard observation to accomplish —as in the cotton manufacture, where the processes of carding and drawing out may be instanced as triumphs of scientific experiment; and also in the art of bleaching, where the scientific observation and experiment of a few years entirely altered the whole system. In commencing, therefore, the study of any manufacture with the view of trying to improve it, it is advisable, indeed necessary, to examine carefully the processes which have been formerly used, and try to understand the reasons for each; and, when we turn to the manufacture of New Zealand flax, we find much to guide us in the haphazard observations and experiments of the Maoris, for they produced a fibre from their best plants of a purity of colour that we cannot yet approach ; neither are our machines capable of producing a material of that oiliness of feel and glossiness of appearance which is seen in their best hand-prepared Tihore. The Maoris used two different processes for different kinds of flax. With the best kinds (Tihore) they simply tore out the fibre, rubbed it together in their hands to open the bundles, and removed the small quantity of tissue that remained, by scraping it with their nails. The inferior kinds (Saro) they first scraped with a shell, having sometimes previously steeped it in water to soften the skin; they then soaked it in water for from two to four days, then beat it with stones while it was wet, and scraped it again ; then soaked it again, and then bleached it and dried it on poles ; and they then beat it with sticks to remove the remaining tissue. For this information lam indebted to Mr. Preece's paper in the Neio Zealand Church Almanac, 1848, and to Mr. J. A. Wilson, who has lately taken great trouble to ascertain from the Thames Natives their former mode of preparation. It will thus be seen that the main features of the systom they employed for the commoner kinds of flax are very similar to those which we now employ; for in both the fibre is first cleaned by mechanical means from the tissue of the leaf, it is then soaked in water, dried, and beaten before being sent to market; and those mills which depart from this systom, either by boiling their flax or by only rinsing it in a stream, instead of soaking it, produce an inferior quality of fibre. We have, however, no process as yet that answers to beating on stones while wet, and I have not yet satisfied myself as to the object which was intended to be attained by this process. It might have been to break up the fibrous bundles and make them more silky, or it might have been to break up the cellular tissue that remained, so as to allow their contents to escape in the second soaking ; or it might only have been to help the removal of the tissue by the second scraping. If the first was their main object, it would be worth while to try to discover a process by which we could also effect it, but in a more economical manner ; but if either of the latter was the object, it would be unnecessary for us, as our machines by one process clean the fibre much better than both the scrapings of the Maoris. If, however, science has not as yet improved upon the system, it has greatly improved upon some of the processes that they followed, and the speed with which the fibre is cleared from the tissue has converted an unprofitable employment into a profitable one. There is, however, still a wide field for scientific observation and experiment in the manufacture of Phormium fibre, and I propose to-night to lay before you such few observations and experiments as I have made, in the hope that they may be of use to others who have not the same means at their disposal for making a microscopical examination of the fibre, and also with the hope that the facts I shall describe, and the suggestions I may throw out, will give rise in time to practical applications that will improve the process of manufacture; and to this end I also hope that others will make their observations and experiments public also. One of the most important results of a scientific investigation is to show us what we cannot do, and what, therefore, we should not attempt; and although these results are never so popular as those which show a new or improved way of doing a thing, they probably, on the whole, save as much money to those that will be guided by them as is made by the employers of the new processes. With this in view, I have divided my lecture into two parts, the first of which is more or less scientific, being an endeavour to give you as clear an idea as I can of the plant, fibre, gum, &c., with which we have to deal, and to show you what appears possible for us to do, and what impossible; while the second part will be more practical, as in it I shall discuss the various operations through which the leaf goes before it is ready to be exported as fibre. But as Ido not wish to weary you by making you listen to information that you can get from the Lnterim Beport on the Growth, Culture and Manufacture of New Zealand Flax (Auckland, 1870), and from other easily available sources, I shall avoid touching upon any point on which the information seems sufficient, unless I think that I can throw a new light on it, or that I can correct what appear to me to be errors. Varieties of Plant. To a New Zealand audience I shall hardly be expected to give a description of the flax plant itself, for we all know it well; and I shall therefore confine myself to a few remarks on the principal varieties, and on the internal structure of the leaf. The flax plant is well known to be highly variable, but no attempt has as yet been made to describe these varieties in a scientific manner, and consequently great confusion exists among the names. Much of this confusion apeears to me to have arisen by supposing that those varieties which were considered nearly alike by the Maoris, and for which they sometimes used indifferently the same name, are really allied from the scientific point of view, whereas the Maori svstem of classification was founded on one feature alone, namely, strength of fibre. All those varieties, the fibre of which was so strong as to enable them to draw it out in long ribbons, without breaking, they called " Tihore ;" while those inferior kinds which had to be soaked and scraped with a shell in order to get leno-th of staple 21