Designing the Future Celebrating the Past

• Pages: 25-26

This year marks t he 150th anniversar y of the grant o f

New Zealand’s rst patent. NZ Patent No. 1, for a plant

ber dressing process and leaf-stripping machine used

to manufacture rope and woven fabric, was granted to

ax milling business par tners, Arthur Guyon Purchas

and James Ninnis in 1861.

Special legislation – the Purchas and Ninnis Flax Patent

Act, 1860 – was introduced to enable the Governor to

grant the patent. The specication, entitled “An inven-

tion for the preparation of the ber of Phorium tenax and

other plants for manufacturing purposes”, was depos-

ited at the Colonial Secretary’s Oce in Auckland, New

Zealand on October 10, 1860, and the Let ters Patent

were subsequently issued on March 26, 1861.

International recognition came when both inventors

were awarded a medal for ax ber prepared using their

New Zealand patented process at the London World

Exposition of 1862.

Flax mill operations

Purchas and Ninnis built a mill on the Waitangi stream in

the North Island where leaves were stripped by grooved

iron beating plates. Stream water circulated by the mill

wheel removed plant waste. They produced 90 tons of

native swamp ax ber using the patented process before

the mill was closed for a time when ghting broke out

between the colonial settlers and Waikato Māori. Ninnis

then moved to Kaiapoi in New Zealand’s South Island to

set up milling operations there.

The Waitangi Mill

where the ax stripping

invention was installed,

for which New Zealand’s

rst ever patent was

granted

25

DESIGNING

THE FUTURE

CELEBRATING

THE PAST

Photo:7-A2820 (circa 1860) Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries

The men behind the patent

Dr. Arthur Guyon Purchas (1821-1906)

Arthur Purchas, a doctor, clergyman and musician with wide-ranging interests sailed to New Zealand from England in 1846. After serving

the Parish of St. Peter’s Onehunga for some 28 years, in 1875 he resumed medical practice. A respected member of the Auckland province

colonial community, he learned the Māori language and helped foster respect and understanding between the local Māori and colonists.

As musical director for the New Zealand Anglican Diocese, he produced two national hymnals, including some of his own works with

English and Māori lyrics. After retiring as a vicar, he continued to teach music to the blind and even invented a speedy method for prepar-

ing metal plates to print Braille.

Captain James Ninnis (1809 – 1879)

An English mining engineer, Captain Ninnis went to New Zealand to run the copper mine on Kawau Island in 1844. When his contract

expired, he managed the copper mine on Great Barrier Island until it was abandoned by the mining company in 1851. The Ninnis family

then settled in Onehunga where, in 1860, the favorable business partnership between Purchas and Ninnis began. Captain Ninnis is credited

with designing the machinery driven by the water wheel at the Waitangi Mill and setting up a second ax mill at Kaiapoi.

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