The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, October 31, 1908. INFERIOR TOW.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 439, 31 October 1908, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, October 31, 1908. INFERIOR TOW.

In Thursday’s issue we published a letter received by Mr P. J. Hennessy, from a firm of London merchants, in reference to carelessness displayed in baleing of tow for export. A prominent flaxmiller states that the dust complained of by the merchant was really dust from the fibre, and not sawdust. Its presence, he stated, was entirely due to careless, and sometimes unscrupulous, packing. Asked as to how the dust got there, he stated that alter the fibre was stripped and bleached it was necessary to put it through the scutcher to clean it. During the latter process all the dust that adhered to the fibre was removed, while a certain amount of fibre, chiefly broken ends, was also eliminated. These broken ends and the dust went into what is called the tow hole. In the ordinary course of things the tow was taken out of there, thoroughly shaken, and then baled, but a number of millers did not do this; they simply took tow and dust out of the tow hole and put it straight into the bales, hence the complaint of the buyers. Another source of complaint was the failure on the part of some millers to remove the flax-tie, i.e., the piece of flax with which the bundles of flax are tied after being cut in the swamp ; this also gets into the tow, and is a cause of great inconvenience to manufacturers, as they are not able to use the tow until these pieces of flax have been removed. The absurdity of sending tow of this description Home is apparent. Good tow brings about £lO per

ton in I lie Lrndon marl et, and it costs, roughly speaking, half that o sand it II) n JLiyer: there, knowing that this infeiior stuff is being shipped, will only pay a very low price for it, and consequently the millers concerned are paying shipping companies freights and other charges, amounting to about £5 per ton, to take Home rubbish. In conclusion, he stated that the evil would probably be remedied as soon as the new grading regulations come into force. Mr J. I). Ritchie, secretary of the Department of Agriculture, states that the regulations governing the grading of tow will be brought into force on January i, 1909.