Manufacturers and spinners are looking everywhere for new materials. It is true New Zealand flax is not new, but it has never come in such quantity, or in such regular supplies, as to warrant merchants in con structing machinery specially adapted to it. It is a much more valuable fibre than jute. Dr Forbes Watson in a lecture delivered 9th May, iB6O, before the Society of Art*, gave a very valuable set of tables, from which I ex

tract, that whilst the average T* of jute for tie ten yeaning i ßs | <• perton.amtfcrthe periodfrom 1852 *ifS £l9 15s per ton, the price of New Zealand llsz ranged from £l7 to £29 tor and from £25 1)08 to £59 for dressed w’ 1850 t 01859. The price of jute ha<l 5? as low at one time as £9 io B and £m * ton ; but still the supply did not fall of? the contrary, increased. From the same tab? we find the importation of jute in isoi ° * 356 tons, average price, no record • 2988 tons, average price, no record’- iBS , 28,233 tons, average price, £l3 io ß .' , g ’’ 53,064 tons, average price, £lB. The* ’ why the price was and is so well maintained in face of such an enormous increast of » material is, that the spinners in Dundee ■* duced by the low price) adapted machinal to spin the article. At first it was only Du , into the coarsest Nos. of yarn 4s f) , Ut Bs. Now it is regularly spun into 20sand even 30s, consequently employed in a wia ° range of fabrics, and thence an increassT demand. 8 “

Now, your New Zealand flax must folio* the laws of trade. You have a splendid material, which you find divsible into v er fine fibres, and you wish it put to its use at once. This can’t be done now,. will be done. Only assure our manufacture of a constant supply, cleaned the best wa" you can, and at a moderate price for the fi r f t few years, and you will find men wi w have the energy, skill, and science to make the most possible out of it. The mechanic and chemist will find a means of getting rid r j the excess of gum. 