la y 
THE LEAF-PIBRE OF NEW ZEALAND FLAX. 45 
tresses, sofas, and chairs ; and for this purpose it has been largely used 
in the North, and is also coming into use in the South Island. It has 
been found to preserve its elasticity for teu years. The fibre, or “ pre- 
pared leaf," is used by the Otago settlers for caulking canoes and 
boats (coples). In the North Island especially, the fibre is still, to a 
considerable extent, manufactured by the natives into rugs, floor-mats, 
cloaks, and other articles of dress, or house furnishings, which are 
used equally by settlers and Maoris. 
Properties and applications of other products and parts of the New 
Zealand Flax plants.—The foregoing do not by any means represent 
all the economical applications of this most useful plant. Indeed, in 
pre-colonization times especially, it was to the Maoris what the Cocoa- 
Nut Palm is to the Singalese and Pacific Islanders, the Bamboo to the 
Chinese, or the Thuja gigantea to the Indians of British Columbia 
and Vancouver. 
The green leaf, torn into strips of varying size, subserves an infinity 
of uses, in lieu of cordage especially. 
The shafts of the gold mines in some of the Otago diggings are 
built by a method “ as instructive as it is novel, consisting of a frame- 
work or skeleton lining of timber, interlaced or plaited vertically and 
horizontally with New Zealand Flax."* The timber used is the small 
or * scrub” timber, in many places comparatively abundant, and henge 
inexpensive. The fax leaf not only binds together the timber sup- 
ports, but prevents the loose or “ detached stuff” from falling on the 
miners while at work. With thongs of the same kind, in pre-coloni- 
zation times, the Maoris lashed together the framework of their whevés 
and the palisades of their pahs. The settlers of the present day use 
strips of the leaf—of various breadth, according to the strength de- 
sired—in lieu of all forms of thong and cordage, straps, or other 
fastenings, e. g. as stock-whips, ropes, straps for conveying loads on the 
back, after the fashion of nie pe (these flax-straps being known to 
the Maoris as ** kehaki," or * kawe”). The drayman, or stockman, 
as he goes along, improvises gu strong pliant fibre of the green leaf 
into a variety of useful articles ; and I have myself, in the form of 
flax-straps and in other shapes, repeatedly experienced sts utility. 
The Maoris make baskets, or “ kits," of the split leaves, dyeing them 
with “ hirau " or “inau ” bark (Elocarpus dentatus, Vahl). These 
* Vincent Pyke: Gold Fields’ Report for 1863. 
