THE FLAX INDUSTRY

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1931, Page 5

THE FLAX INDUSTRY

PROPOSED EXPORT SUBSIDY. PROSPECTS OF REVIVAL. Further information is being sought by hemp exporters as to the exact terms of the subsidy which the Unemployment Board is said to be offering. The deputychairman of the board, Mr. J. S. Jessep, is reported to have said that to help the flax industry the board had decided to giant a subsidy of £3 a ton on all hemp exported. At the present time the board is giving on all hemp exported to Australia a rebate equal ~*to the difference between £lO5 and £lOO, plus the ruling rate of exchange. Thus, with the present rate of exchange,at £ll4 7s 6d, the rebate would be £? 7s 6d per cent. An exporter stated that at the present time the English market was dead, and the only offers from that quarter were not worth considering. The £3 subsidy, however, (Would be sufficient to set trade moving again, and to lead to the re-open-ing of°clc'sed flaxmills and the re-employ-ment of many hands who have long been out of work. To what a low ebb this once flourishing industry has fallen is by the statement of this exporter tpat he knows of only two mills in the Auckland province still working. All trfat remains now is to have the terms of the Unemployment Board’s offer definitely fixed and made known, and as a natural consequence something in the nature of a revival of the flax industry m»+ reasonably b© expected.