FOXTON FLAXMILLS REOPEN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 90, 14 March 1935, Page 6

FOXTON FLAXMILLS REOPEN.

CLOSED FOR FIVE YEARS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) FOXTON, March 14. To-day the two fiaxinills belonging to Mr H. Berry, and situated on the river bank at tho southern end of Main Street, recommenced operations after a five-year period of idleness. For some time .past Mr Berry has been engaged in renovating the mills and making preparation for a start as a result of a contract he was able to effect some time ago, and yesterday for the first time 'since May. 1930, the Manawatu River service boat was put into commission to bring down a load of green loaf from the Moutou swamp. Fifty tens of flax was landed last evening, and tho leaf is of a particularly fine quality. Interviewed by a “Standard” representative this morning, Mr Berry said that the leaf was tho best he had had in his mill for very many years prior to his closing down in 1930. “The period of cessation of milling activities has undoubtedly done the flax plants a lot of good,” said. Mr Berry, “and there is no denying the fact that the Moutoa swamp is the home of the flax plant —the best flax growing area in the Dominion.” Mr Berry is employing 32 hands, and all of these are men who had been thrown on to relief jobs as a result of thta depression in the hemp industry.