EVERLASTING FLOWERS

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 5294, 4 June 1904, Page 10

EVERLASTING FLOWERS

In Cape Colony tbp gathering, drying and packing for export of tho Helichrysum vostitum (Everlasting Flower) constitutes a very important industry in Hermanns, Stanford, and one or two other Tillages and hamlets in the division of Caledon, on the southwest coast of South Africa. The area over which those flowers grow is limi-, tod to this comer of tho colony, and, tho whole industry is monopolised by two or throe men, who partly own and further lease tho right of gathering, and who have erected extensive buildings for drying and packing the flowers. In tho Western State of the Commonwealth, Australia possesses an asset of the same character, and it is possible that tho extensive fields of wild Cowers may be turned to profitable account. The idea is at least worthy of consideration. Writing in the “Gardanrs’ Chronicle,” Mr S. A. Docon describes the South African industry as follow^; The “flower houses” and their strange gaol-like appearance with Targe sheets of perforated iron -substituted for ordinary windows (to insure a, constant draught) greatly .puzzles the uninitiated ns to their origin and use. During the season such enormous quantities of those everlastings daily come in from’.’the veldt—borne not, only on the heads of women and children, but in bullock waggon loads at a time—that, especially in such an exceptionally good season as wo are having this year, these flower houses prove quite too small for tho purpose for which they wore erected, so that in order to obtain the necessary diying space every available loft in the place is lured, the price paid, varying from os, to £1 per month per loft. Having only within tho last nix mouths taken np my abode at the lovely and popular seaside resort of Hermanns, and knowing nothing previously of this curious industry, I was not a little surprised, when abruptly asked a few clays ago by an agent of the, monopoliser o.f the industry in these parts, whether I would mind letting my loft for fifteen or twenty days. Xot caring to have my privacy invaded, I at first strongly objected, and only consented after having ascertained that almost every loft in the town—containing aihout ' 120 houses —was hired, and most of them already full of these flowers. So, not to bo more churlish than my neighbours, I, upon being assured that access to my loft could be had from a door in tho gable, and that T should not be disturbed, I agreed, in consideration of tho payment of a moderate sura, to have immortelles dumped dov r n over my body whilst yet numbered with the living, for a period of one calender mouth. Although I have had experience enough and to spare of the drying process, 1 find it difficult to get information respecting the business side of this industry. In' reply to my inquiries. I have - been .politely told that tho prices given and obtained were “business matters”—affairs of Egypt, in fact, and not communicable. I know, that tho price paid to tho gatherers—who pluck the flower with about an inch of stem attached—is only Is 6d per threo-bushel bag, whoso contents,, when dried, would weigh probaihly 391 b. I have also been assured by a man whose father was one of the pioneers of this industry that some twelve or fifteen years ago these flowers sold in Capetown for £1 sterling per pound! It is well-known that this same pioneer was a comparatively poor man upon his entering upon a lease of a farm on which those flowers grow in great profusion, and that after a few years’ tenancy he purchased the farm for £6OOO all made out of everlastings.