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Historical Records of New Zealand
New Zealand Hemp
New Zealand Hemp.
Sir, —
Agreeably to your directions of the 26th ultimo, to make trial of the comparative strength of line twine and yarn manufactured from New Zealand hemp or flax against similar sizes of those articles made from Riga and Chili hemp, and to report to you the results, with our opinion of the quality and character of the New Zealand hemp, we beg to state that we have tried their strength by suspension, and the following are the results of the trials, viz.:—
| Those tallied. | New Zealand. | Riga. | Chili. | ||||||
| cwt. | qrs. | lb. | Cwt. | qrs. | lb. | Cwt. | qrs. | lb. | |
| 1. Lines, hawser laid 3 strands, suspended in the clear 3 feet, broken with | 12 | 3 | 15 | 18 | 1 | 5 | 18 | 2 | 1 |
| 2. Lines, cable laid 3 strands | 2 | 3 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 16 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 3. Lines, hawser laid 4 strands, with a heart | 5 | 0 | 16 | 7 | 0 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 19 |
| 8. Single thread yarn, 3, twisted into twine | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 11 | |||
| 9. Twine, 3 thread, coarse | 0 | 1 | 20 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 10 |
| 10. Twine, 2 thread, coarse | 0 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| 11. Twine, do., do. | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| 12. Twine, do., fine | 0 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
It will therefore appear that the lines and twine from the New Zealand hemp bore little more than two thirds the weight of those made from Riga and Chili hemp.
The specimens of hemp are too small for us to form a correct judgment as to their fitness for cordage. They appear much worked down for fine uses, and none has been transmitted in a rough state, clean from the stems or reeds, to enable us to ascertain its length and natural fibre, and produce when worked down. However, the memorialist states its growth from two to six feet, and even by the seaside ten feet. The latter, we would remark, is the most likely to produce hemp fit for cordage. It is certainly flexible, and fit for fine uses, and might be manufactured into canvas. We have tarred a small piece, and it appears to imbibe tar equally as well as Russian hemp.