Bark for Tanning and Dyeing.

A number of the native forest trees and plants furnish good dyes from their bark. The Natives were acquainted with most of these, and dyed their flax mats and baskets with them.

A black dye can be made from the bark of the hinau (Elæocarpus dentatus), and by adding a rust of iron an excellent non-corrosive ink is obtained.

Brown and red dyes are obtained from the bark of the towhai or tawhero (Weinmannia racemosa). The Native mode of procedure is first to bruise the bark, and boil it for a short time along with the flax to be dyed, which, when the infusion is cold, is taken out and steeped thoroughly in red swamp-mud, rich in peroxide of iron; it is then removed and dried in the sun.

The towhai is a forest-tree abundant in many parts of New Zealand. The bark has been successfully used as a tanning agent. The dye obtained from this bark gives a very fast class of shades page 15 upon cotton; it can be sold at the same price as gambier and catechu. The extract is more astringent than that of the hinau, and needs only to be introduced to be accepted by tanners.

The bark of the tanekaha (Phyllocladus trichomanoides) is now exported to a small extent as a dye-stuff that imparts fine shades to fancy leathers for glove-making.