FOR MILLING FLAX

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21179, 1 June 1934, Page 10

FOR MILLING FLAX

MACHINERY ON WAY TO JAPAN SHIPMENT FROM LYTTELTON THOUSANDS OF PLANTS AND SEEDS EXPORTED The extent to which the Japanese have succeeded in growing New Zealand flax as a commercial proposition is indicated by the shipment from Lyttelton yesterday of a consignment of milling machinery destined for a Japanese city. It is understood that the machinery includes one of the most important units necessary for setting up a factory for the manufacture of fibre products, and that its consignment is the direct result of the recent visit of a small party of Japanese experts to Christchurch. Packed in a large case, the machinery apparently was set up and completely ready to be put into operation on its arrival. These machines are manufactured only in New Zealand, to operate with phorrnium tenax, which is indigenous to the Dominion.

This shipment of machinery is not the only indication of the keen interest which has been taken recently by the Japanese in the New Zealand flax industry. It has been reliably reported that since the beginning of the year there have been big consignments of flax plants, numbering many thousands, and of flax seeds, to the East, and that Japanese visitors have been inspecting works and plantations. It is even stated, on very good authority, that Japanese experts (presumably the same experts who visited Christchurch recently), paid a visit to the modern factory which was opened at Foxton in March, and secured so much valuable information from their inspection of the works that it was immediately decided to prohibit visitors to the works unless special authority was procured. Whether the keen Japanese paid similar visits 1o the plantations in Canterbury and Southland, or to the works, cannot be ascertained, but it seems certain that they gained valuable first-hand information about growing and preparing flax from certain quarters in the North Island. Growers Perturbed The flax growers in the Dominion are already having an extremely difficult task to carry on growing at a profit, and are perturbed at the threat implied in these inspections of factories and in the export of plants and machinery. They say that the shipment of plants of selected strains and the acquisition of knowledge of the process of treating fibre can point only to one result—the intention of the Japanese to cultivate flax with a view to establishing a fibre industry, with ruinous competition to follow. One of the visitors is said to have

stated that there is no danger of Japan becoming a competitor of New Zealand in the flax market, but some growers refuse to be reassured by the statement. It is realised that at present cultivation in Japan cannot have become an important enough factor to allow competition immediately with New Zealand flax products in the Dominion, but it is believed that it will not be long before the Japanese are able to put fibre products on New Zealand's overseas fibre markets. Protests to Government When it was reported in January that. 40,000 selected flax plants had been sent to Japan from New Zealand, and that an additional 10,000 would go at a later date, the New Zealand Flaxmillers' Association asked the Government to take action against exporting them. The association staled mat unless drastic action were taken the industry would have to face serious competition from overseas countries employing cheap coloured labour. On February 19 of this year it was reported that the Brisbane Maru, calling at Auckland, had taken 40,000 ilax plants of the best grades for shipment to Japan. Those plants were raised in the Waikato.

"The Press" published this week a report that the Foxton Chamber of Commerce had expressed concern at the interest Japan was show- j ing in the industry. It was stated at the meeting that recently two Japanese had visited Foxton to investigate flax-milling and fibre preparing operations. They had come with introductions from various high New Zealand Government officials. The meeting decided to write to the Minister for Internal Affairs (the lion. J. A. Young), protesting against the export of selected strains of flax. These protests have apparently not yet been answered by the Government, and it has been held in some quarters that even official interference could not stop the Japanese from developing their industry at the expense of New Zealand. Production Increasing It. is known that Japan needs a large source of fibre, which is in great demand for a variety of pur-, poses; and she needs plants which,, like phormium tenax, will flourish in a temperate zone. The production of flax in Japan in 1931, according to the Japan-Manchukuo Year Book for 1934, was approximately 18,000 tons. This was double the production for 1927. For the your 1932-33 in New Zealand the production of flax which was put through the 20 mills operating here was a little more than 20,000 tons. Actually Japan's interest in New Zealand's flax dates back a good many years. In an article published in "The Press" in 1922 it was stated that phormium tenax was growing well in Japan from some seed sent from New Zealand in 1918 by Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M., who was an ardent botanist. Apparently that early venture has prospered, but there is a peculiar quality about phormium tenax which makes it a very difficult fibre to produce from the blade. The Japanese have evidently discovered what other overseas millers did, that only in New Zealand were the machines manufactured which could deal with the unusual requirements of the flax. Hence the purchase of the milling plant from Christchurch. It is believed that other consignments of machinery will have to