Ferdinand von Mueller

Report. An annotation records: 'Reports on flax send & others' and that a reply was sent on 30 October.

Although the report requested has not been precisely identified , it is likely to have been that of the second Commission on flax established in New Zealand at about this time . A New Zealand Royal Commission was appointed in September 1869 to report on the machinery used to prepare 'New Zealand Flax, as well as upon the varieties of Flax, both New Zealand and European, which it may be most desirable to cultivate … and to make recommendations … to promote and encourage the cultivation and preparation of Flax … and its use for manufacturing purposes within and without the colony'. The commission report (Flax Commissioners (1870)) was available by May 1870 (for example, Nelson examiner, 1 June 1879, p. 3). A further Commission with Hector as Chairman was appointed 19 October 1870 to undertake more complex investigations including analysis and experimental comparisons of Phormium . Its report, Phormium Commissioners (1871), is dated 6 October 1871, with copies available to the New Zealand newspapers by 12 October ( for example , Wellington independent , 12 October 1871, p. 2. The Victorian Commission on Foreign Industries and Forests , of which M was a member, at its meeting of 3 October 1871 had instructed its secretary to obtain 'information from New Zealand as to whether the difficulties of preparing for market … phormium tenax have yet been overcome' ( Australasian (Melbourne) , 7 October 1871, p. 474) .