FLAX EXPORTATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16234, 20 May 1916, Page 9

FLAX EXPORTATIONS.

RELIEF OF CONGESTION.

HEAVY AUCKLAND STOCKS.

The statement of the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. W. F. Massey, in Parliament on Thursday last, that arrangements" had heen made to send away a full shipment of flax next month, has been received by the flax-milling industry with relief. Inquiry in Auckland yesterday showed that stocks have been accumulating in Auckland since the end of March, with the result that the two grading stores in the city are now full, necessitating arrangements for extra storage space. No fewer than 9000 bales of hemp are at present stored in the city, the value of the stocks being approximately £40,000.- Such congestion has never been J experienced previously in the history of the industry. The flax-millers in some cases were obliged to cease forwarding supplies, but in most instances arrangements were made to keep the mills working until the end of May. The anouncement made by the Prism Minister, therefore, is considered timely, and the hope is expressed that Auckland will receive a fair share of the shipping space to be allotted. Even so, it is declared that unless there is reasonable prospect of shipping space being available for three or four months, the rate of production is likely to be detrimentally affected. Some relief has been afforded during the past two or three months by a certain amount of space being intermittently available in American bottoms, but with the disadvantage of the lower prices obtaining in America as compared with those in London. Competition has also had to be faced from Manila. New Zealand flax-millers, it is asserted, have further suffered by having entered into contracts when prices began to rise. Thus they have missed the benefits of the high prices now ruling, while the cost of placing *the product on the British market has more than doubled.

Prior to 1915 the flax industry, in New Zealand had languished for two or three years. In 1915 there were shipped 23,220 bales of hemp and 3465 bales of tow, as against 19,702 bales of hemp and 4226 bales of tow in 1914. These figures do not' show the real increase, because those for 1915 include shipments of flax which was in store at the beginning of that year. The real increase in prod tion began about the middle of 1915, at d continued into the present year. The principal factors responsible for the advanced prices are the difficulty of placing the product on the consumers' markets, which has lessened the Manila competition; ai d the troubles in Mexico, which have injured the large flax industry there.