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22
ON THE ECONOMICAL VALUE AND APPLICATIONS OF
THE LEAF-FIBRE OF NEW ZEALAND FLAX (PHOR-
MIUM TENAX, Forst.).
By W. Lauder Lindsay, M.D., F.R.S.E., F.L.S., etc.
Very various have been the estimates formed at various times of the
economic value of the dressed fibre of the New -Zealand Flax-plant.
On the whole, I fear its value has been much exag^gerated. The colo-
nists have been in the habit of asserting, and on such excellent antho-
rity as that of the late Professor Lindley, that the fibre in question is
more than double the strength or tenacity of ordinary flax, and con-
siderably stronger than Eussian hemp ; and they add, that the plant
will yield in cultivation per ton at least a half more fibre than Russian
hemp. But the truest criterion of its value is the actual price it
fetches, or could commfind, in the British fibre-market. Nominal or
estimated value is a most fallacious criterion, especially when the
estimate is formed by interested colonial referees, or their agents or
friends at home.
Now, the Dundee fibre merchants of the present day—its jute and
flax importers and spinners—rank New Zealand flax only with jute
and the cheaper and coarser qualities of fibre. Unless it can be intro-
duced here at £10 or £15 per ton, they say* it will not compete fa-
vourably even with jute. The finest qualities of common flax are at
present valued at £50 per ton ;
and by the difference between £50 and
£10 we may measure the estimate that has been on the whole formed
in Dundee of the market value of New Zealand flax. A colonial paper
states that a Dundee manufacturer estimated some " half stuft", sent
from Otago, as worth £20 per ton for some descriptions of matting."t
But isolated and individual estimates of such a kind are of little real
or practical value. The Dundee spinners complain that New Zealand
flax does not " tie ;" but this may be the result of mal-preparation,
because strips of the greens leaf "tie" admirably. On the other
hand, some specimens of New Zealand flax were produced at the New
Zealand Exhibition of 18 05, from Napier, valued at £70 per ton.
* My special informant was one of the jiarlncrs of the well-known house of
Cox Brolhoi's, of Lochee.
t ' Otiigo Daily Times,' March 20th, 1867.