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NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND.
195
condition, although, some two years ago, the flax that is now sold in the London markets at about £22 a ton, when dressed was then fetching £35 to £37, and paid the exporters exceedingly well. It generally brings from 2s. 6d. to 5s. a ton as it grows on the land, and there are about ten tons to an acre. It has then to be cut at a cost of 5s. a ton; after that it is taken to the flax mills, where it goes through the scraping machine, which removes all the green coating; it is then "retted" or spread out for some ten days upon grass for the purpose of allowing the damp to separate the fibres by decom-
