This year marks the 150th anniversary of the grant of New Zealand's first patent. NZ Patent No. 1, for a plant fiber dressing process and leaf-stripping machine used to manufacture rope and woven fabric, was granted to flax milling business partners, 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 specification, entitled "An invention for the preparation of the fiber of Phorium tenax and other plants for manufacturing purposes", was deposited at the Colonial Secretary's Office in Auckland, New Zealand on October 10, 1860, and the Letters Patent were subsequently issued on March 26,1861.
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