THE FLAX INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 185, 4 August 1923, Page 9

THE FLAX INDUSTRY.

REMISSION OF TAXATION. A GROWER'S GRIEVANCE. (Special to " Star.") WEU>I>~GTON/, August 3. The flax farmers of the Dominion are not a numerous company, and they cannot expect to exorcise ;i great deal of political influence; but just now they have a grievance which is likely to appeal to others than tho«e directly interested in their industry. The Land arid Income Tax Amendment Bill, which, was introduced in the House of Representatives last week and is intended to relieve farmers from the income tax imposed upon them durinf; the war, specially excludes incomes derived from timber,'minerals and flax from its provisions. The exclusion of incomes obtained from timber and minerals from the remission i> logical enough. Neither mining nor eanMtiilliug can be regarded as farming, since neither the minerals nor the forests liave been cultivated by the hand of ninu. By and by, when the Forestry Department has persuaded farmers to raise crops of trees for commercial purposes, it may be necessary to exempt the resulting profits from income tax. but meanwhile this question has not arisen. FLAX FARMTNi;. I Tn these day.-, however, the cultivation lof flax, the growers and millers insist, i* every hit as much farming as is tho growing of cereals or the raising of stock. The great flax swamps—those that were profitably accessible, at any rate—which supplied the raw material for the early milling operations long ago, disappeared before the inroads of closer settlement. It is said positively that no uncultivated ilax is being milled to-day. The plants arc now as assiduous!/ cultivated as are crops of roots or grain, and in many cases at a considerably larger cost. The land has to be sy stoma tically and thoroughly drained, the drains have to be carefully tended day by day, weeds have to be destroyed, and every possible precaution taken against fire. The cost of all this is ."lom three to five times as much as the cost of felling bush and grassing the cleared land, and the flax farmer often has to wait four times as long as the pioneer settler has for his Tcturns. THE GROWER AXD THE MILLER. After the flax crop has been established it still needs constant skilled attention. The drains have to be kept in order, weeds have to 'bo kept down at any price, weakly plants have to be replaced by stronger ones, ami tlie ravages of stock and pests have to l>e guarded against. It is true that most of the flax farmers are also Ha-v----millers, but this clearly is no reason why they should be removed from the category' of primary producers. The flax farmer is usually a flax miller for the good and sufficient reason that he must manufacture as well as handle the product of lua farm. As one farmerflaxmiller has pointed out, there are very large areas of indigenous grasses, principally in the South Island, carrying large" flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, whose occupants might be much more l6gically denied the benefit of the income ta_\ exemption than the flaxgrowers, with their intense cultivation, can be. A NATIONAL ASSET. The flax fawners make no claim for special consideration in this respect on account of the difficulties that have beset their industry during the last year or two. The chief of these, the yellow leaf disease, lias cost them thousands of pounds in loss of raw material, but they realise that other producers have suffered in a similar I way. They do contend, however, that flax-growing ehould receive from the State the same encouragement and assistance as are extended to other primary industries. It gives employment to a large number of hands the whole year round, and contributes largely to the Dominion's sum of annual e-.-ports. In good seasons and under favourable circumstances it gives as good returns as do other branches of I farming, and with the increase of popu- ! lation and the growth of industrial activity it must become the basis ot important manufacturing enterprises. With this great outlook before flax farming it is extraordinary that it should have been selected for what j seems almost penal taxation, and the ! followers of the industry naturally are j indignant.