n and nine women can be employed in preparing and
manufacturing the flax, which barely keeps them in practice. There is
only one loom on the island, and the slay or reed is designed for coarse
canvas; nor do they possess a single tool required by flax-dressers or
weavers, beyond the poor substitutes which they are obliged to fabricate
themselves. If there were introduced proper slays or reeds, brushes, and
other articles indispensably necessary for flax-dressing and weaving,
with more people to work the flax and a greater number of weavers, this
island would soon require very little assistance in clothing the
convicts; but, for the want of these necessary articles, the only cloth
that can be made is a canvas something finer than No 7, which is thought
to be equally strong and durable as that made from European flax.

This useful plant needs no cultivation. An experiment has been made to
cultivate it, and answered extremely well; but the produce was not so
much superior to that growing in a natural state as to make it advisable
to bestow any pains on its culture.

Before the arrival of the two New Zealanders in May 1793, no effectual
progress had been made in its manufacture; nor was it without much
entreaty that our visitors were induced to furnish the information we
required. And indeed, as this work is principally performed by the women
in New Zealand, our friends were by no means competent to give us the
fullest instructions. Sufficient, however, was obtained from them to
improve upon. Since that time those women that could be spared from other
work, not exceeding from six to twelve, had been employed in preparing
the flax; and a flax-dresser, weaver, and three other assistants, in
manufacturing it into canvas, rope, etc.

When the leaves are gathered, the hard stalk running through the centre
is taken out with the thumb-nail; and the red edges of the leaf are also
stripped off. The two parts are then separated in the middle, making four
slips of about three-quarters of an inch wide, and the length of from
eighteen inches to three or four feet. These slips are cut across the
centre with a muscle-shell, but not so deep as to separate the fibres,
which is the flax. The slips thus prepared are held in the left hand,
with the thumb resting on the upper part of the slip just above the cut.
The muscle-shell held in the right hand is placed on the upper part just
below the cut, with the thumb resting on the upper part. The