FLAX AND FLAXMILLERS.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 283, 7 December 1907, Page 5

FLAX AND FLAXMILLERS.

(By "Phormium.')'

Now that there is a decided slump in the flax fibre industry, and of a seemingly permanent nature flaxmillers are beginning to look round and realise tliac the industry has up till now been resting on a rather artificial basis. Flax has commanded high prices, not so much because of any great intrinsic value but because of temporary reverses to its great competitors. These reverses are now cleared away and the phormium stands on its own ground.

Manila, the greatest of all competitors to New Zealand phormiumtenax, has recovered its position on tho markets of the world. During the last decade it has undergone a series of reverses which handicapped it seriously, to the gain, of course, of New Zealand. The SpanishAmericau war, which stopped trade in the Phillipines for the time being, followed by a disastrous hurricane which swept over the islands and broke down the crops, combined to place the Manila henrp in a position from which it took some time to recover. As Captain R. Gardner pointed out recently, tthough the hurricane broke down the crops it at the same time caused the market to be flooded with an inferior class of the hemp manufactured from this broken stem. It was this flooding of the market that did more harm to Now Zealand than anything else. The article was cheap and inferior to the usual class sent out from the Phillipines but still higher in quality than our product. It consequently held the market.

There are other things to be taken into consideration further than the above-named, such as the unsteady state of the world's money market and vacillation in the world's wheat crops, which without doubt had a great influence over New Zealand prices and helped to cause their drop. Now, however, the Phillipiues are peaceful; the crops are exceptionally good this year, being about a million bales. Prospects for next year are even better than they were for this. Added to these things, the wheat crop in America is exceptionally low and consequently there is small demand for binder-twine, which is chiefly made from our flax. Altogether, what with the big demand for Manila hemp and the small demand for New Zealand phormium, prospects for the season are not exactly encouraging. Either some means must be found of producing the article on more economical lines or millers must submit to the disastrous prices which are at present ruling. The cost of production must be altered to meet the altered conditions. The easiest and most direct way of reducing the cost of production is by lowering the royalties. The present rate of royalties and the present price of dressed flax have already caused many millers to shut their doors. Seven years ago the rate of royalty was 4s 6d per ton. A few months ago it was 22s 6d. Now it is 61s. Swamp owners have long enough bled the millers and now it seems that the royalty is approaching a fair level. Every week we seem to hear of improvements in flax-dressing machinery and other means of saving labor and thus cheapening the cost of production. Two millers at Takapau have been for some time experimenting with a new fibre washing machine which it is said means a considerable saving in labor. They are also trying a new scheme in the way of a catching machine which is expected to turn out successfully. They are both very simple and if brought to a successful working basis will mark another step forward in the science of fibre dressing. All these improvements are of. course good for the miller, but as time goes on and the industry is brought down to more economical methods of production it will mean that there will be a great reduction in the amount of labor required. Fibre dressing is still in its infancy and, like every other industiy, employs somewhat laborious methods at first, though they may not seem so at the time. Later on it will mean a great reduction in unskilled labor, but the employment of a comparitively few men who are skilled in that special line. There is no doubt that the unskilled laborer in New Zealand mills receives a very high wage indeed—far above the average workman. High wages such as are paid at present greatly increase the cost of production, and in the opin* ion of some prominent millers, should also be readjusted to suit the altered conditions. As the Minister for Lands said the other day, something like a sliding scale may be necessary as is the case in the coal trade for instance, the rate, varying with the price of the product.