FLAX BONUS

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 141, 11 March 1930, Page 13

FLAX BONUS

Sir, —Being to a certain extent interested in the flax industry (financially), I have read with interest the Government s offer of a' bonus to encourage investors to work, out a process which will pull the industry “out of the mud,” and there is no getting away from the fact that the present times are not what one would call booming. This being the case, I have up till now failed to see how this bonus is going to encourage inventors to think out some process whereby the flaxmillers will once again be able to sign cheques on a credit balance instead of a debit balance account. The patient is sick, almost to death; he must, be cured ; a doctor is called in and prescribes certain medicine and treatment, which medicine duly arrives from the chemist. Unfortunately for the patient, the people looking after him have taken up faith healing, so, instead of giving him the medicine to take, they think and hope that he will recover if they only show the medicine to him, and speak cheerful words and tell him to “look what we have got from the doctor for you.’’ The - patient of course does not feel any the better for his view of the medicine, and probably damns his tormentors and dies. Pathetic picture, isn t it? But it is a sketch of what the Government evidently is doing to (he flax industry. , • • Tn the past, much money has been made out of flax, but the enormously increased supply of Manila, and especially sisal, has to a large extent killed our market. Sisal can be put on the London market for £2l per ton. and it is sold for about £35 per ton, a margin sufficiently large to enable them to sell on a fallen market. New Zealand fibre costs about £32 per ton to land in London, and sells for about £33 per ton, a very different state of affairs. There is a possibility that our hemp can be made useful for purposes other than binder twine, ropes, etc., getting away from the Manila and sisal market, and entering a relatively higher market; it is also possible that more fibre can be obtained from the green leaf through cutting out the shocking waste in production ; it is also >ossible to improve the grade by having cleaner and better dressed fibre, and last, but most important. it. Is possible to reduce the cost of production. . ' All these things are possible, but is it not asking too much from any man to bring all these things about at one time 9 If he could do so by good fortune and good brains, is not £lO.OOO too little to offer for.such improvement which would, at a low estimate. ■ increase the net return to the millers of New Zealand by £lOO.OOO per annum. ’My ideas, for what they are worth, as to how the bonus ought to be offered, are ns follow: — . 1. The bonus should be given to the person who .produces a process which shows the greatest net increase on the average net return of the average mill. The' minimum increase to be not less than 15 per cent.' , . 2. By direct assistance to the inventor. whose process shows the most practical way of overcoming any or all of the disabilities under which the industry nt present works, giving him the means to demonstrate his process, on a commercial scale, deducting the assistance given from the total amount of bonus to be offered,. • v ■ . ■ 3. By direct assistance as above, the amount so advanced to rank as a share in the invention. Example: if the Government advanced £lOOO to an inventor, and the total cost of trials up to the final demonstration were, say, £2OOO, the Government would own a half share in the invention. This being accomplished and the invention a success, the Government could first of all recover the amount of the bonus paid from the royalty charged, then, wishing to help the industry, it could waive its interest in the royalty in favour of the millers. The bonus could then be used to further the interests of other industries. These are only suggestions from one who is seeking a solution, and the quickest road to success for the flax industry. I would be pleased to have answers to the following questions 1. Is the industry worth the Government spending £lO,OOO on? 2. Do they think it is urgent that some solution be found which can save the industry from failure? • 3. Do they seriously contend that 90 per cent, of “good fair” fibre can be pro- . duced from 40 per- cent, of good leaf and 60 per cent, of poor and diseased leaf? 4. Do they really mean this offered bonus to be of assistance to the millers, or are they using eyewash?—l am, etc. S.O.S. Wellington, March 10.