LINES FLAX FOR WAR

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24741, 5 December 1945, Page 5

LINES FLAX FOR WAR

. *—■ PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND

BRITISH- INDUSTRIALIST’S PRAISE

New Zealand’s war-time production of linen flax for Britain was praised yesterday by Mr J. D. Barbour, a director of the Linen Thread Company of Glasgow. which is the largest manufacturer of linen threads and twines in the world, and which has received a licence to manufacture these products, in the Dominion. Mr Barhour, who is visiting Christchurch on Business, said he had: been greatly impressed with New Zealand’s war effort overseas and on the home front, and particularly with its production of linen flax when Britain was in desperate need of supplies' Mr Barbour said that the main supphes Of linen flax for the mills in Northern Ireland had come from the Baltic States and Russia, and had been completely cut off early in the war. Northern Ireland was then in difficulties, because before the war it produced about 70 per cent, of the world’s linen flax products, and only 2} per cent, of the linen flax. To make up tor the loss of overseas supplies the sowmg of linen flax over the whole of Ireland had been -increased from 10.000 J, 0 195.000 acres. Part of the British industry’s heeds had been met by' the supplies of fibre from New Zealand.

Mr Barbour added that during the war the production of linen flax had be 6 n started in England, where it had not been grown to any great extent before. The King had set an example by setting aside a large acreage of his Sandringham estates for the purpose, and an expert from the Linen Flax Research Association in Belfast had .been sent to England to control the growing and processing of the flax. Prices to the farmer and the spinner had been fixed by the Flax Controller, and a subsidy of £l2 an acre had been paid to linen flax growers. The Linen Thread Company, which operates in the United States and many other parts of the world, and trades in Australia and New Zealand through its subsidiary company, Frank and Bryce, Ltd., is registered in Glasgow, but its principal mills, which employ 2200 people, are at Lisburn, near Belfast, and have been established for more than 180 years. Mr Barbour, who is a nephew of the chairman of directors, the Rt. Hon. Sir John Milne Barbour, Minister of Finance for Northern Ireland from 1941 to 1943, is a representative of the fifth generation of the family in the business.

Mr Barbour said that his company had not experienced much difficulty in changing over to peace-time production. for similar linen thread was required in both war and peace. During the war his company had produced vast quantities of linen thread and twine for the forces. One big line had been the production of thread for weaving into parachute harness. This had all been made from unretted flax, and five tons a week had been produced all through the war. Mr Barbour, who is accompanied by Mr W. Aspinwall, general manager of Frank and Bryce, Ltd., in Australia and New Zealand, flew from England to Sydney by the Lancastrian service. He expressed appreciation yesterday of the co-operation he had received from the linen flax section of the Department of Industries and Commerce in the arranging of transport and other matters.