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neat baskets which at dinner serve as plates and dishes; the men 
manufacture lines, nets and sails of them. The natives knew also 
how to prepare and to dye the flax-like fibre, and thus to obtain 
the material for their mats and woven garments. The Weruweru, 
a kind of garment, was prepared out of the half-prepared leaf; the 
state-dress Ivaitaka is interwoven with many coloured borders of the 
fine and carefully prepared fibre. For dyeing black, the bark of 
the Hinau tree ( Elazacarpus Hinav j is employed; for red, the bark 
of the Tawaiwai (or Tanekaha) tree (Phyllocladus trichomanoidesj. 
The Phormium plant is widely disseminated over New Zealand 
from North to South , and millions of acres of land are covered with 
it. It grows upon any kind of soil, whether moist or dry; in any lo- 
cality, whether high or low. In the Alps of the South Island, phor- 
mium bushes are met with up to a height of 5500 feet above the level 
of the sea. The plant, of course, varies according to the locality, and 
the natives distinguish by different names ten or twelf varieties, which 
they use for various purposes according to the quality of the fibre. 
The flax plant attains its most luxuriant growth in the vicinity 
of swamps and rivers upon moist alluvial soil. Here the leaves 
grow to a length of 10 to 12 feet, and the flower-stalks to a height 
of 16 to 20 feet with a thickness of 2 to 3 inches. Large phormium 
bushes, therefore, indicate always a very fertile soil, and the natives 
knew very well how to cultivate the flax upon such land in the 
vicinity of their kaingas. But from those places the flax plant spreads 
on one hand into the swamps, and grows in the water, and ascends 
on the other hand on the dry slopes of the mountains to a very 
considerable height , without however attaining the above stated 
size. We may distinguish about three principal varieties: 
1) Tuhara, swamp flax, with a coarse, yellowish-white fibre; 
used especially for ropes, lines etc. 
2) Tihore , a cultivated variety, the best kind with a fine, silken- 
glossy fibre of pure white colour; used for mats and garments. 
3) WharariM, mountain flax, with coarse fibres; little used. 
Experiments made to test the strength or tenacity of the 
New Zealand flax-fibre have shown, that it is far superior in 
