OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3184, 1 April 1911, Page 10

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER

REVIEW.

THE FLAX INDUSTRY

t.By 11. J. EAMES.)

Touching Foxton, one conies'upon an important liax centre. The busy punts, and along the roads the fiore-laden drays, tile whirring mill machinery and the big rope works, all bear evidence of the essential part which phormium tenax contributes to the prosperity of the district. If we take a. line from Waikanae, in a north-easterly direction to Linton, and back to Foxton, an area is embraced upon which one six-stripper mill, one three-stripper mill, and 27 sin-gle-stripper mills operate. It is estimated that a single-stripper will turn out 7\ tons of finished fibre m a 48-hours week. Just now the price of flax is low - —£l7 10s per ton in Wellington at the time of writing. But at that price the 7-Jtons of eaon single stripper _ equals £4725 per week, 'the year 1907 was boom-time. and Wellington district sent out 13,472 tons, or 44t per cent of the Dominion’s exports. The price then was £29 per ton, the highest since the year 1567, when it was £33 per ton. In the year ended June 30, IbOS, the district output fell to 10,094 tons, and in 1909 to 9330 tons. It may be remembered that in a recent arbitration case it was j contended that the falling off was in > consequence of the wages award which had been made operative in this district. On behalf of ‘‘the other side,” however, il> was shown that the lessened manufacture had been general throughout the Dominion ; the exports having been 30p 013 tons in 1907, 21,561 tons in 1908, and 13,310 in 1909, and that Wellington district’s contributions to the quantities was 44§ per cent, in ] 907, 46i per cent in 1908, and 70 per cent in 1909. It would appear that in flax,, as in other products, the market price largely governs the quantity cut, for when values are abnormally high, as in 1907, small .mills spring up everywhere, and it pays to cut patches which would not make profitable working at present prices. There has been a good deal of friction on the question of royalty as between growers and millers, and on the question of wages as between millers ailu men. Th royalty subject is rather interesting, and it may not be generally known that it is the grower, and not the miller, who reaps the lion’s share of the profits when London market prices go skyward. Thus the scale on the Moutoa estate, near Foxton, provides that if the price in London, be £2O per ton the miller pays 3s royalty on green flax, which amounts to £1 5s 6d per ton on the fibre. That leaves the miller £lB 14s 6d per ton. But if the London price were £3O, the royalty to be paid to the grower goes up to 30s per ton green, equal to £7 4s 6d per ton of fibre, leaving the miller (when the London price is £3O) a balance of £22 15s 6d per ton. If the London price were £4O, the miller’s balance would be £27 5s per ton, the other £l2 15s per ton going to the grower for royalty. The men reckon they work on an average, nine months a year, and that during that period, taking broken time into consideration, their wages pan, out, all round, at about £2 8s per week. In the work of producing the finished fibre from the Waikanae-Linton-Foxton area about 600 men are employed. But thereafter the rope, factory, the shipping, the grading, and other necessary handlings give employment to many more. It will thus be> seen that the market price of flax counts as a material factor in the well-being of a large number of people, and the ’change reports form a subject of daily comment over the teatable. “Flax is up 10s a toil,” the wives of the workers will remark to one another, or “Flax is down,” as the case may be. Unlike timber, the flax industry is here to stay, and so long as the seasons are favorable and the demand on the open market holds good, •so long will the flax swamp area continue to hold a prosperous place in the Dominion’s rural activities. From the sand-dunes on the seashore between the Bangitikei and the Manawatu rivers, the country . opens up through light soils into valleys, and flats, and swamps, which increase in usefulness as one proceeds inland. But it is right in the. region of the Oroua that one must look for cow country at its best. The farmers there are not shrinking from paying high prices, and it must be hoped that their confidence in the butter-fat industry and in the district will not prove misplaced. At Glen Oroua the soil is rather light in places, but the peat-swamp land stands the dry -weather very well. An estate of 800 acres was cut up into about < 70-acre farms, and during the past year or so they have realised £35 per acre. At Mangawhata, two miles from Oroua Bridge, a farm of 130 acres (of which 50 acres was in bush and some waste) was carrying 60 cows, 20 weaners and 5 horses, and the owner had just got rid of some sheep. A few months ago 50 acres was sold in this locality at £SO per acre. On the land'between Mangawhata and Glen Oroua the farmers talk in glowing terms of the productiveness of the soil. “There’s nothing better in the world.” was the enthusiastic declaration. If these properties had been in the hands of agents for sale their virtues could not have been extolled more eloquently, but the writer was assurred that there were only a counle of farms on .the market. This peat* land works up beautifully under cultivation, and the general testimony was that it would grrnv mangels and maize “till further orders.” At Rongotea there is an important factory, which draws its supplies direct from a rich surrounding area, and the strings of milk-carts to be seen until late in the morning any day during the season give ample proof of the Cow’s firm establishment