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be principally used for stuffing matresses. A finer product could 
not well be furnished at flic high rate of wages paid for labour. 
It was not until 1860, that my friend Key. Mr. A. G. Pur- 
clias in Onehunga near Auckland, succeeded in devising a proper 
method for obtaining the flax-fibre in a state of perfect purity. 1 
He found, that a sudden heavy stroke upon the leaf, when spread 
upon the cross-section of a block of hard wood, destroys all its 
parts except the bast-fibre, and that consequently by a series of 
such strokes the fibre may be obtained quite pure. After nume- 
rous trials he succeeded , with the cooperation of Messrs. J. Ninnis 
and J. Steward, in constructing a machine by means of which it 
is possible to obtain by one single operation the pure fibre from 
the leaf, so that a number of leaves cut fresh from the stalk and 
placed in the machine on one side of it, come out on the other 
side in less than a minute as a pure fibre, which requires only to 
lie dried so as to be ready for the rope-maker’s use. 
This machine the principle of which is exceedingly simple, 
but the working of which nevertheless requires great care , consists, 
according to tire communications of my friend Rev. Mr. Purchas, of 
two main-parts: first, of a large, solid cy- 
linder or drum A of hard wood , revolving, 
and so put together that its surface all round 
presents the cross-section of the wood; and, 
secondly , of a row of long and thin iron- 
plates B, at the lower end of which a groove 
is cut. These iron-plates may be raised from 
nine inches to one foot , and fall by their 
own weight back upon the leaves, which 
are made to pass through between the revolv- 
ing wooden cylinder and the iron pounders. 
1 Also Messrs. J. Ninnis, J. Probert, G. Webster, Neil Lloyd, T. Turnbull, 
G. Cole and Baron de Thierry, have distinguished themselves in this respect by for- 
warding beautiful samples of their manufacture to the exhibition in London, in 1862. 
Excellent samples of cable rope are manufactured out of New Zealand flax by Mr. 
Neil Lloyd ; they are infinitely preferred to the Manilla ropes, it being both stronger 
and less liable to injury from exposure to water. 
