ene eee 
THE LEAF-FIBRE OF NEW ZEALAND FLAX. 29 
where the expected demand for this class of fibre for cordage alone is 
ten tons per week. The New Zealand Exhibition of 1865 contained 
an instructive suite of samples of cordage made from New Zealand 
flax, from the coarsest ship-rope to the finest thread, including clothes- 
lines, fishing lines and nets of twisted flax-fibre, and twine. Ships’ 
cordage is reported to be excellent as to strength, but it does not ab- . 
sorb tar freely. For cordage, especially, it is still supposed that the 
New Zealand flax fibre is deteriorated by the gum, from which it 
has hitherto been found impossible altogether to free it. A New 
Zealand flax ropery once flourished in Auckland, but its operations 
were stopped by the irregularity of the supply of the fibre conse- 
quent on the native rebellion of 1863. Excellent ropes were shown 
in the International Exhibition of London in 1862, by Auckland 
patentees (Messrs. Purchas and Mimis). New Zealand flax-made 
cordage is now largely used in the North Island, both by settlers and 
Maoris. 
Applicability to the Manufacture of Paper.—B. M. Cameron, of 
Edinburgh, the editor of the * Paper Trade Review,’ and himself both 
a paper manufacturer and an ingenious experimentalist, reported very 
favourably of New Zealand flax-made paper in a letter to the ‘ Times,’ in 
September, 1863. He describes it as “ superior, both in strength and 
capability of finish, to that made from most of the rags now used. 
From experiments I have seen made...I am convinced there is 
not a better material to be had for the purposes of the paper-maker." 
On the other hand, the Chevalier de Claussen, in his experiments on 
the fibres suitable for paper-making,—the results whereof were laid 
before the British Association in 1855,--found that the fibre of Phor- 
mium tenax was both expensive to prepare and nearly impossible to 
bleach.* The paper on which Murray's work is printed is described 
as resembling that used for Bank of England notes; in colour it is, 
however, brownish, and in texture coarsish, containing a considerable 
number of specks,—both the result, perhaps, of defective manufacture 
and bleaching. The paper in question was, however, manufactured in 
England frem New Zealand flax sent home; and paper made also in 
. England so lately as 1866, from fibre prepared by M‘Glashan and 
Grieve, has apparently similar characters. The latter paper is described 
* * Atheneum,’ September 29th, 1855, p. 1126. 
