Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1941. THE FLAX INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 132, 6 May 1941, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1941. THE FLAX INDUSTRY.

A glowing future for the flax industry was pictured by the Minister for Industries and Commerce wheu speaking - at Foxton the other day. The growing and processing' of flux, Ue said, will unquestionably become one of New Zealand's major industries within the next i'w years, providing not only for the needs of New Zealand but for markets overseas. Developing his theme, the .Minister spoke of "raw material growing luxuriantly in New Zealand." There was a time, indeed, when flaxmilling might well have become and been maintained as- a major industry, but the many people, particularly in this district, who can remember the large areas of swamp country which did grow the raw material luxuriantly until disease assailed it, may hud it difficult to agree with the Minister that growing and processing of flux will reach the lofty heights his rhetoric led him to state. The statistics in the Year Book eloquently tell of. the vicissitudes of this orice impo'rtaht industry, the oldest in the Dominion, which but for the substantial help given at the taxpayers' cost, must have found it extremely difficult to have weathered the economic storms of recent years. In the past fifty years the peak of production was reached in 19U7 when 28,547 tons of phormium fibre were exported, the value being £'832,068. The output, of the mills fluctuated considerably, but in 1913 28,000 tons were exported. The Great War established a good demand for the product for ropemaking and in the three years of 1916-17-18, when production ranged between 23,500 tons and 27.G00 tons, the annual value of the phormium exported exceeded £1,000,000.

Production commenced to decrease in the following year when there were 7G mills in operation, employing 1439 hands, and the vaiue of the output was returned at £G81,3G9. The first sharp decline, however, came in 1921 and though a measure of recovery was noted between 1923 and 1929 the industry could not make a 'substantial recovery. In the depression period following 1930 exports fell to 1784 tons in 1931 valued at a mere £30,900. In 1937-38 the. number of mills operating showed a slight rise, 33 as against 29 in 1935-36, employing 537 hands, with an output of 7000 tons of fibre and 1400 tons of tow valued at £177.512, the exports amounting to £80,470. Much of the land that once grew phormium is now being used for dairying or other farming purposes, the total area covered in flax being', given as 57,602 acres against 72,823 acres ; n 1934-35. Disease in the swamps, hijvh costs of production, and unprofitable prices have contributed to this state of affairs, and to-day the Government is giving the industry substantial help, a movement which commenced in 1931, no less a sum than £115,731 having been paid up to Ausrust, 1039. The industry is now licensed under the Industrial Efficiency Act, but whether if will refrain the prosperity of former years as the Minister anticipates, time alone will tell.

CABINET CHANGES. The Cabinet changes made by Mr Churchill have earned favourable comment. The driving force with which he has invested his own duties he requires of his colleagues, and he does not hesitate to create a new office to bring closer to him another man of strong will to get things done. That is Lord Heaverbrook, who leaves the Ministry of Aircraft Production to become Minister of State with a non-departmental post in the War Cabinet. His particular function is to direct the general field of production, leaving to Mr Churchill the highet duties of the Premier's own great office. As Minister of Aircraft Production Lord Beaverbrook has been immensely successful, and under his administration the number of aeroplanes has risen sharply, new factories having been- built and productive capacity raised to its highest pitch. He now assumes wider duties, his successor being a pioneer officer of the Royal Air Eorce, Lieut.Colonel Moore-Brabazon, to whom may safely be entrusted the task of bringing Britain to air supremacy, so well advanced by Lord Beaverbrook. Transport and Ship-, ping have been wisely merged at. the Ministry of Wartime Communications to give greater impetus to the movement of-shipping at the various ports. The need for the quick unloading and loading of merchant vessels, always imperative in wartime, has been made many times more imperative by modern war, and surprising though the appointment <>t .Mr Leathers is, he is eminently fitted for the task both by business experience and driving force. Mr Ronald Cross is being' translated to Australia as Hi ah Commissioner, and the valuable experience he gained as Minister of Economic Warfare, and then ai the Ministry of Shipping, should be of material value to Australia's war leaders. This appointment is on all fours with that of Mr Malcolm MacDonald in Canada. The, best brains and driving force of i the nation are wanted in all the Empire countries, and Mr Church-, ill's appointments are on earnest! of his intention that the war will be conducted at the highest pitch of efficiency. Ministers must not be hampered by trivial, departmental matters which subordinates can handle.