LINEN FLAX PAYMENTS

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23315, 29 April 1941, Page 12

LINEN FLAX PAYMENTS

GROWERS RECEIVE £65,000 FIRST INSTALMENT IN FARMERS’ HANDS A total of £65,000 has been received in the last few weeks by farmers in the South Island who have grown linen flax. The payment represents the £5 an acre guaranteed to every farmer who undertook to grow flax, and will be followed shortly by another payment aggregating 80 per cent, of the value of that portion of the crop which has been accepted for fibre. The payment was due yesterday, but owing to an entirely unforeseen difficulty in estimating the weight of straw in stacks on farms, it will probably be a month before every farmer has received his cheque, though the first payments will be made within a few days. Three Instalments Payment for linen flax is, under the system in operation this year, made in three instalments. The first is the £5 an acre guarantee, paid after the crop has been inspected to see whether it is to be accepted for straw or not. If it' is accepted, £1 is charged for the use of the puller, and a net £4 is received. If the crop is not accepted for straw, the full £5 is paid out. as the puller has not been used, and an allowance is made on valuation for the seed: harvested. The second payment is made after samples of each crop have been processed and valued. The value is based on a unit of one ton, and with this figure established from the sample, it becomes necessary only to assess the weight of straw in the stacks on the farmer’s property. It is here that there has been difficulty, Farmers and other experts connected with farming are able at a glance to tell with surprising accuracy the weight of material in a stack of say, straw or oats, but as linen flax is a new crop to New Zealand, nobody has any knowledge of how it weighs when stacked. Officers of the Department of Agriculture have been given the responsibility of making assessments of weight of crops still in farmhands, but have found it dUHeult

to arrive at figures which they could be confident would be within the 20 per cent, margin allowed for in the second payment of 80 per cent, of the value of the crop. Growers themselves, of course, have little more knowledge than the departmental officials on this point. Stacks Weighed

To gain some idea of how flax straw weighs, a number of stacks were put on scales, and a further complication was revealed. It was found that from crop to crop flax straw varies greatly in weight, apart altogether from the amount of seed it is carrying. Steps are, however, being taken to ensure that the payment due to farmers yesterday will be made within the next week or two. .

The balance due to growers will be paid later in the year after the straw they have produced has actually been weighed as it passes in to the factories Officers of the linen flax section of the Department of Industries and Commerce, which is in charge of linen flax growing in New Zealand, have found the present system of payment rather cumbersome, and hope next season to be able to evolve a system which will be very much simplified. The hold-up in the present payment is one of a number of teething troubles that have cropped up in the establishment of the new and important flax industry. It is not particularly serious, though the linen flax section officers are disappointed that they have not been able to keep faith with the 1100 growers who responded less than a year ago to the appeal of the Imperial Government to undertake the growing of an entirely strange crop.