Canna —New Rival to Kenaf

Kenaf and Jute

AUSTRALIA has produced what is alleged to be a serious chal lenge to New Guinea’s infant kenaf industry (and, of course, to jute). This is canna fibre, produced from the plant which hitherto has been regarded merely as a garden decoration.

Cultivation of cannas for fibre has been getting some attention in NSW since shortly after the end of the war—certainly longer than kenaf has been of interest in New Guinea. This year, however, about 8,000 acres have been planted in the Port Macquarie district and the material made from the fibre has been claiming public interest.

Canna enthusiasts say that the whole of the plant can be used, that it can be handled entirely by machinery and that—greatest ad vantage of all —it does not have to be spun or be woven into cloth as does kenaf or jute. The fabric made from canna is made by a simple pressing process, the gums and resins in the plant acting as the bonding agent. It may be water proofed by a further simple pro cess.

It is claimed that it can be used for most of the purposes for which kenaf and jute are now designed.

The greatest use for industrial

fibres of the kenaf and jute variety —as far as Australasia and the Islands are concerned—is for wool packs, and corn, wheat and copra sacks. Other uses are backing for linoleum, string, etc.

To just which of these purposes canna fibre can be put has not been specifically stated. It seems too much to believe that millions of pounds have been wasted hitherto on expensive spinning and weaving machinery if a simple process of bonding can cover the same ground.

Presumably canna fibre can also be used by decorticating—as with kenaf.

If could be, too, that if canna can be bonded, so also can kenaf, H Miss Joyce Walker, of the Methodist Mission at Mendi, NG, Southern Highland, was on furlough in Australia in October.