PRODUCTION OF FLAX

Taranaki Daily News, 8 February 1934, Page 11

PRODUCTION OF FLAX

INDUSTRY’S GOOD PROSPECTS WIDE POTENTIAL MARKET. NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA. In spite of the existing slump in flax-milling it is considered by those in touch with the position that the prospects for the industry are exceedingly bright. This year will see the beginning of an attempt to manufacture wool-packs and like products from flax fibre. If such a market is secured in New Zealand and Australia the need will be created for an annual quantity of raw material far in excess of the present supply. With the object of estimating the extent to which the industry is capable of development from its present position, inquiries were made by the Dominion among those who are studying the position. It was stated authoritatively that while there was sufficient flax in New Zealand to-day to supply probably 20,000 tons, and certainly not more than 25,000 tons of hemp, the requirements of the New Zealand and Australian market, assuming it can be secured, will necessitate provision for an annual output of 100,000 tons of hemp. It was emphasised furthermore that there is ample land available in New Zealand for the production of this quantity.

POTENTIAL AUSTRALIAN MARKET.

“I have no reason to doubt that both the Australian and New Zealand market can. be secured,” said one informant. “The wool-pack material has been carefully tested, and can be produced at a favourable competitive price. Australia does not manufacture a single wool-pack, and should regard the new New Zealand produce very favourably. The principal factors to be watched are, the other hand the danger of dumping nulled hemp, which in many instances is far from what it should be, and on the other hand the danger dof dumping at a price prohibitive to the local industry.” In the opinion of those associated with the trade the present unenviable position of the flax-growing and milling industry cannot be attributed to the depression period. New Zealand hemp has been beaten on the world market by a cheap manila or. sisal, and would have suffered defeat in any case. For the time being the export trade is being assisted through the Unemployement Board by means of a bounty of £4 a ton, but this is merely having the effect of keeping the industry alive rather than assisting its develop-' ment, which, in the field of competition with manila and sisal, is impracticable at present-day prices. AN UP-AND-DOWN INDUSTRY. The flax-milling industry has always been one of ups and downs. It was in comparatively low water in 1896, only 52 mills being in operation employing 647 hands. In the four years that followed there was a revival and in 1901 a total of 101 were in operation employing more than 1600 hands. The 1905-06 period was the height of a boom, the number of mills having jumped to 240, yet five years later the total number of mills had dropped to well under 100 with a proportionate reduction in the number of employees. The following figures indicate the fortunes of the industry at five-yearly intervals from 1905 to 1930, and each year from then, until 1932, the last years for which returns are available:

HOW ACREAGES HAVE DECLINED. When it is realised that this decline, compared in terms of fibre production, means—to take only the last three years given—a decrease from 11,725 tons in 1929-30 to 2046 tons in 1931-32, the weak condition of the industry becomes still more apparent. , In the meantime the flax-bearing lands of New Zealand are also rapidly decreasing in acreage. Figures collected by the Government Statistician’s Department, covering the past three years, are as follow:— 1930- 91,219 acres. 1931- 77,437 acres. 1932- 64,206 acres. The bulk of this land is carrying a natural growth of flax, although a proportion in each case represents planted flax. For example, in the case of the 1932-33 figures, a total of about 12,000 acres of planted flax is included. There is reason to believe, however, that these acreage figures do not represent the true position, inasmuch as the system of compilation in the past has been by accepting the acreages of flaxbearing lands as supplied by landholders without regard to the actual quantities of flax carried by those lands. Alive to this point, the Department of Agriculture is at present having prepared by its field officers a much more 'accurate survey, and it is expected that the total acreages of lands carrying adequate crops of good millable flax will be considerably reduced—in the case of the 1932-33 figures, from 64,000 odd to, perhaps, in the region of 50,000 acres. AMPLE LAND IS AVAILABLE. The steady decrease is the result of the destruction of the flax by land be ing brought in for dairying and other farming uses. This destruction has been going on, throughout the country, over a long period, it being estimated that in the Manawatu alone in the past 15 - years 10,000 acres of flax have disappeared—flax that under normal prices pays at least £6 per acre per annum in field costs alone. These prices are now of the past as far as the export of fibre is concerned, but it is said that the price offered to growers for supplies to be used in the manufacture of wool-packs and other products is quite a satisfactory one, enabling a healthy revival of the industry limited only by the extent of the demand from that quarter.

An authority when asked whether, in the event of the demand for fibre reaching the previously mentioned total of 100,000 tons a year, the land to carry such a quantity of flax would be available, 1 answered emphatically “Yes.” He added: “Not only is there plenty of suitable land lying idle, but at the present price of dairy produce and in view of the uncertain outlook for that industry it would pay to bring inferior dairying lands back into flax cultivation. It is quite an erroneous idea, by the way, that flax will grow only in swampy country. This belief seems to have arisen from the fact that the natural flax growth has been so reduced by destruction that it has been forced back into swampy lands. These are the only places where it is left. Flax reaches maturity in about four years from plants and about six years from seed, so you will see that the production of the raw product could readily be increased to keep pace with the demand.” It was claimed, he said, that the first New Zealand factory for the manufacture of wool-packs, which was to begin operations at Foxton next month, would have* an ultimate capacity of about 4000 tons of hemp a year. Two other mills

were planned, but the establishing of these would depend upon the success of the Foxton venture.

New Zealand’s own requirements in the way of wool-packs were expected to absorb 7000 tons of hemp a year. To this total had to be added approximately 2000 tons a year for domestic requirements such as the manufacture of binder-twine, giving an aggregate of §099 tons, or more than four times the amount of hemp produced last year. “In the event of the market expanding to embrace Australia, the domestic demand for hemp would be such as to make us disappear off the world market for hemp,” he added. “As against this we would be supplying New Zealand mills on a scale that would give employment to thousands.”

Number of Persons Value of factories, engaged, output. 1905-6 .. 240 4076 £557,808 1910-11 .. 81 1244 £284,399 1915-16 .. 76 1257 £470,774 1919-20 .. 47 1010 £409,329 1925-26 .. ....... 71 1241 £553,285 1929-30 ....... 57 903 £319,369 1930-31 .. 22 117 £47,722 1931-32 .. 17 135 £33,878