The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 6 (October 1, 1929)
The Flax Leaf
The Flax Leaf.
Railway Training School'S Rugby Football Team, 1929.
Back row, left to right: Mr. E. W. Hayton (Coach). Cadets: C. J. Paton, C. H. Coup, R. D. Russell, D. C. Curtis, J. E. Russell, C. Singleton, and Mr. M. Bracefield (Manager). Second row: G. A. Glover, L. D. Rhynd, R. R. L. Shaw (Capt.), E. C. Williams, E. S. Anderson. Front row: I. Thomas, F. R. Debenham, A. G. de Joux and D. S. Woodley. (The above is the first team to be entered by the Railway Training School in the Wellington Rugby Union's Competitions.)
There is the possibility of many uses for flax besides those of the present. Flax makes excellent paper, makes artificial silk also, and it should in time give New Zealand all the cornsacks and wool-packs that are needed here instead of sending large sums away to foreign parts. If it were possible to employ the old-time Maori methods, the result would be interesting and profitable. But other times, other labour.
The flax business of a hundred years ago, by the way, was one reason why the Maori was so fond of making war. He needed all the slaves he could capture to make “muka” for the traders, so that he could buy more firearms and powder to prosecute more wars—the eternal circle.
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