FLAX GRADING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 78, 1 April 1905, Page 7

FLAX GRADING.

CONFEBENCE AT WELLINGTON.

(By Telegraph.-r-Presg Association.)

' WELLINGTON, Friday. A conference of persons interested in flaxmilling was held at the Chamber of Commerce to-day. Delegates attended from various parts of the colony. Amongst those present were the Minister for Lands and the chief Government hemp grader. -*"*. G. A. Simpson (chairman) said for some time past millers had been quite dissatisfied with the system of grading. Mr. D. Gardner (Manawatu) moved: ''That as a standard for graders, millers, and merchants, two bales of hemp, the lowest points in each grade chosen by a committee appointed by this conference and paid for by fiovernment, showing the points awarded, be graded and deposited at each of the ports of export in the colony, and that two similar bales be forwarded to London."

An amendment was moved by Mr. Toomath (Shannon): "That na alteration be made in the present system of grading hemp." Tie Hon. T. Duncan, addressing the conference, said if millers looked to manufacturers more than they had been doing there would be fewer disputes in future. The chief cause of disputes was that bad stripping samples had been returned from America, which showed that leaves had been put in with undressed ends. The fault, he thought, principally lay in machinery not being kept in proper order, and perhaps in some cases through incompetent men being in | charge of machinery. Millers, in their j own interests, should prevent inferior material being sent out of the colony. I The motion was carried.

The chairman moved: "That an arbitrator he appointed by the Chamber of Commerce grading department and the Flaxmillers' Association, and any miller feeling aggrieved may, upon depositing £5. have fhe right to appeal to such arbitrator.'' The mover considered there should be some board to which they could appeal if they had a grievance. He did not blame graders, but they required a uniform system of grading, that a man might know if he came to Wellington and found his shipment unjustly condemned, he had some remedy. j That remedy, he thought, lay in the appointment of a board of appeal I against the decision of the grader. This motion was carried.