W. Travers.— Utilization of Phormium tenax. 117 
The first question involves a matter of mere calculation. 
The machinery is of a very inexpensive character, and if worked by 
water-power, the cost of working is reduced to the minimum. 
In order to prepare the ropes for passing through the rollers, we should 
have to provide,— 
1, For cutting the flax and tying it into bundles of, say, 112 lbs. each. 
2, For collecting these bundles together for carting. 
3. For the carting to the mill. | 
4. For boiling the leaf. 
5. For plaiting or twisting it when boiled, and for watching the further 
operations. 
I am of opinion, taking the present value of labour and fuel into account, 
that the fibre can be produced at the mill at a gross cost of from £9 to £10 
per ton, in condition equal to that now before you. 
I will now proceed to make a few remarks upon the question whether 
the fibre produced by the above process can be turned to profitable account. 
In this question are involved both local and foreign demand. As regards 
local demand, I know that some hundreds of tons of Phormium flax, in the 
condition of the imported sample marked A now before you, are annually 
used in this colony for stuffing mattresses, and other upholstering purposes. 
I know, also, that flax in similar condition to that which I have prepared for 
your inspection, has been long and largely used in neighbouring provinces in 
the manufacture of rope and lines of various kinds, and that it commands a 
ready sale for those purposes. 
From inquiries that I have made amongst upholsterers in Christchurch, 
I find that the flax at present consumed by them in the manufacture of 
mattresses, &c., costs them on an average £35 per ton, and that they 
reckon not less than 5 per cent. as waste. From former inquiries in other 
parts of the colony, I am led to believe that fibre in the condition of that 
before you would be readily purchased at from £26 to £28 per ton for the 
same purposes and for manufacture into rope and lines; and I believe that 
a still larger quantity would be used for these several purposes, if the raw 
material eould be regularly supplied at £25 per ton. 
I also believe that if a large and continuous supply, of a quality similar 
to that now shown to you, were guaranteed to English manufaeturers, it 
would command from £25 to £28 per ton in England for rope-making pur- 
poses alone ; for although the rope manufactured from it might not possess 
the same excellent qualities, in all things, as that made from the fibre of the 
European hemp, there ean be no doubt of the applicability of the rope to 
various useful purposes, for which its comparative cheapness would greatly 
recommend it, 
