THE FLAX INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20259, 20 May 1929, Page 14

THE FLAX INDUSTRY.

BAY OF PLENTY OPERATIONS.

CULTIVATION ON LARGE SCALE. MANY WORKERS EMPLOYED. The interest displayed by New Zealand and Australian capital in the development of the flax industry is having an important bearing on the prosperity of the Bay of Plenty. Flax cultivation on a large scale is being carried out at scvoral points between Tauranga and Opotiki, and Whakatane is likely to boast in .tho not far distant future tho largest flax mill in the Dominion, manufacturing, in addition to flax' fibre and tow, a number of valuable by-products. On both banks of the Rangitaiki, where extensive draining lias reclaimed hundreds of acres of rich alluvial soil will) a useful stratum of volcanic ash, deposited during the Tarawera eruption of 1886, ploughing and harrowing operations are being carried on by niotor-traclor and scores of workers are employed planting out roots and seedlings. In three years, >t. is estimated, .16,000 acres will be covered in the Bay of Plenty with flax, feeding local factories with a regular supply of raw material for making ropes, binder twine, sacking, engineers' waste and other products. Tho Rangitaiki Plains are considered singularly well adapted to flax cultivation on a large scale, as they have a highly nutritive soil free from noxious weeds, a convenient system of artificial waterways, in the form of drainage canals, to carry the raw material to a central mill, pure water lor washing the Jlax and an abundance of experienced Maori labour. From time immemorial the Maoris have been skilled in the recovery and use of the (lax and in the Bay of Plenty they have taken easily and willingly to the reviving industry. Although natural-grown flax is still being taken out of the Rangitaiki Plains the object is not so much to obtain fibre as to secure a supply of roots for replanting. These are set out in regular rows on ploughed land, which will be kept clear of all secondary growth, and in three years, when it has grown to its full heigtit, tho leaf will bo cu>,, leaving tho stump to effect successive growths. High-grade seed of tho best-known varieties of phormium tenax is being imported from the South Island, where tho finest strains are grown, and nurseries are being established.

The new mill, which it is proposed to establish near Whakatano, will have an output of 5000 or 6000 tons of flax fibre a year, each acre of land producing approximately two tons of fibre annually. Every effort will be made to develop byproducts. So far, it is maintained, flax is the Cinderella ot New Zealand industries as far as research is concerned ; new manufacturing processes and commercial uses are therefore the subject of experiment by the experts employed by the companies interested, and when the factory is opened it will be equipped with modern machinery to exploit the latest scientific knowledge of the laboratories. I hat flax cultivation is gaining strength as a profitable industry seems to be indicated by the fact that during the past 10 years the area under cultivation jn New Zealand has been steadily increasing. 10-day the Dominion' turns out fibre worth £500,000 from its flaxmills annually and the industry U attracting capital from overseas. Its success will closely affect, in particular, the future of the Rangitaiki Plains, where dairying and flax-growing are now joined in a race to exploit the rich productive land made available by an expensive drain ace scheme.