24 



The Maori or native-dressed Phormium fibre — which by some 

 experts is said to be far the best, because the leaves of only the 

 best varieties are selected when quite ripe and carefully stripped — 

 has brought in Scotland as much as £70 to £90 per ton; while in 

 London the price of the ordinary European-dressed article for 

 rope or paper making purposes has ranged from £10 to £23 per 

 ton, according to quality. According to the New Zealand Trade 

 Review and Wellington Price Current for January last, however, 

 the market at present is almost at a stand-still. It states — " No 

 orders in force, and little or no disposition on either side to speculate. 

 Small contracts might be made at £12 or £14, but at these low 

 rates millers are unwilling to enter into any large or long-dated 

 engagements." The Phormium grows in a wild state in most 

 parts of New Zealand, but especially in the North Island, under 

 almost all circumstances of soil or situation, and is found even in 

 the interior at an elevation of 2,000 feet. Most luxuriantly does 

 it flourish near the coast, on river flats liable to inundation, and 

 on the terraces and lower slopes of bills (where in places it forms 

 an almost impenetrable barrier against the advance of the traveller). 

 To the Maori in his native state it is his all in all. With its aid 

 he builds his " whare " (or house) and his canoe ; of its fibre he 

 makes his clothing — those handsome mats and blankets which are 

 the admiration and envy of all who see them ; torn into strips and 

 twisted he makes his line and net for fishing, and his snare, where- 

 with to capture the wild fowl of the forest. It is, as has been 

 well said, his roof, his blanket, his cloak, his kilt, his cable, his 

 ladder, his basket, and his couch,* Sir James Hector states that, 

 although there are 65 different names applied to the Phormium 

 plant by the natives, it is doubtful if more than twenty marked 

 varieties can be distinguished." These are from the two recog- 

 nised species — Phormium tenax (Forster) and Phormium Colensoi 

 (Hooker). Again, Sir James Hector says — " One variety of 

 p. tenax, called ' Yellow Hill Flax,' grows generally in clay 

 hills .... and the leaves are seldom more than 5 or 6 feet 

 in height .... fibre very soft and glossy. The leaves of 

 Phormium Colensoi and its varieties ate not so strong as those of 

 P. tenax, and are sometimes quite brittle." Thus, it is at once 

 apparent that, in establishing plantations the object of which is 

 the production of good marketable fibre, care should be taken to 

 obtain the right kinds, as with the uninitiated it is an easy matter 

 to mistake one species or variety for another. 



Samples of the fibre may be prepared in three ways — first, 

 by stripping the upper cuticle of the green leaves, steeping the 



* For fall and complete Information regarding Kew Zealand flax, see Sir James Hector's 

 Instructive pamphlet Phormium tenax as a Fibrous Plant, 2nd edition, 1889 : Published by the 

 New Zealand Government. 



