22 
ON THE ECONOMICAL VALUE AND APPLICATIONS OF 
THE LEAF-FIBRE OF NEW ZEALAND FLAX (PHOR- 
MIUM TENAX, Forst.). 
By W. Lauper Lindsay, M.D., F.R.S.E., F.L.S., ere. 
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 exaggerated. The colo- 
nists have been in the habit of asserting, and on such excellent autho- 
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 Russian 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 command, 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 stuff, 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 green leaf “tie” admirably. On the other 
hand, some specimens of New Zealand flax were produced at the New — 
Zealand Exhibition of 1865, from Napier, valued at £70 per ton. 
* My poems ceras was one of the partners of the well-known house of 
Cox Brothers, of 
f ‘ Otago Daily 1 Times March 20th, 1867. 
