30 



resorting to chemicals, they also altered their process somewhat ; though 

 they still adhered to machines, they afterwards used the retting or 

 fermentation jDrocess, and by thai means were now producing an article as 

 soft and as free from gum as any to be shown ; and he thought they were 

 coming round to the idea that the true process lay in a combination of the 

 two different modes. The commissioners had tested a sample produced by 

 Dr. Florence, of Canterbury, which had been put twice through the 

 stripping machine, and then in the solvent, the exact natui'e of which 

 was the secret of the inventor ; and had tested another sample which had 

 been three times through the machine ; but much stress was not placed on 

 these experiments. The commissioners were still engaged in experi- 

 menting, and the result of course would be made public. A bag was 

 shown, the property of Mr. Kebbell, that had been made fourteen years 

 ago, and that had been in constant use all that time ; and to all appear- 

 ance it was equal to another fourteen years of the same usage. Thei-e 

 was no doubt that New Zealand flax was well adapted for far higher 

 purposes than it now served, and by giving the necessaiy attention and 

 perseverance to the matter, we should yet command the London market, 

 where at present a combination existed against us. But that combination 

 we could break down by sending a good article, and in sufficient qiiantity, 

 which would ultimately drive some of the other fibres out of the market. 

 Mr. Travers, M.H.R., in the course of some remarks, said that one 

 of the earliest and best samples of flax he had seen in the colony, was 

 prepared by a Mr. M'Glashan ; the process was, in its main features, the 

 same as was suggested by himself in a paper read by him before the 

 Philosophical Society of Canterbury. That process was one of the simplest, 

 and produced a fibre for ordinary manufacturing purposes better than 

 that by any other process now in use. It was safer, freer from gum, did 

 not so soon become harsh to the touch, and lasted longer. One feature 

 of the process was that from the time when the fibre was first cut it was 

 never allowed to become in any degree dry. It was not bruised or beaten, 

 but simply, after having been boiled with an alkali derived from the 

 ashes of the wood which boiled it, subjected to the compression of grooved 

 rollers. The outer cuticle being then broken up, was washed away in 

 a running stream. As Dr. Hector had demonstrated that the gum was 

 soluble in water, that, therefore, seemed to him the best way which, by 

 the quiet and simple action of running water, got rid of the extraneous 

 matter. He had examined a great many machines, Auckland and others, 

 and he thought them wasteful, clumsy, and expensive, when comj)ared 

 with the process of Mr. M'Glashan. Mr. Travers here read an extract 



