A NEW INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13946, 29 April 1909, Page 4

A NEW INDUSTRY.

COTTON FOR THE WEST COAST. VIEWS OF A LANCASHIRE VISITOR, In a new country, like Now Zealand, them is always room for now industries. The natural resources in soil, minerals, and timber, await 'development. There are, periodic rumours of discoveries of copper, of gold, of oil, of coal, of iron and other valuable properties of the earth; tbcro are periodic proposals for the utilisation of iron deposits in Tara- j nnki ivonsaml and Parapara hematite. Unfortunately, in. these as in other scheme;* thero is much talk and littlo wool. Something is always going to be done, but things remain in that comfortable visionary state unconscionably long. The possibilities and potentialities of our climate are in the meantime overlooked in mstny directions. For instance, there is cotton manufacture. % A visitor to New Zealand, a Lancashire, man fresh from the great home «f the cotton trade, happened to wander off the beS'ten tourist track and stray to the West Coast, the. humid region of no drought. He Bpent some time there, and was much impressed with the suifabHity of the climate foi cotton spinning and weaving. It it^ this moist atmosphere, so necessary to' cine spinning, that has given Lancashire, in spite of its distance from tile cotton fields of the Southern States, 'its unchallenged pre-eminence in the world of cotton. 'In other countries the climate is too dry, and the fine threads break in the spinning and weaving processes. It is found necessary, in order to combat this difficulty, to pump stfam into the factories and make the atmosphere artificially humid. The ef ; feet is extremely injurious to the operatives, many of whom succumb in con-; sequence to consumption. In spite of these artificial methods; it hris been found impossible to spin the finer counts of cotton for the choicer fabrics. American cotton manufacture in Massachusetts and the Southern States is considerably handicapped by the dry climate of those regions, and the manufacture is chiefly of the coarser varieties of cotton goods. The same statement holds good with France, Germany, Russia, Japan, and India— in fact, with all countries outside- Lanca- ;

shire. For the manufacture of cotton in its most profitable branches of finer work a moist climate is essential. "Tho West Coast is an ideal place for the cotton industry to thrive in and prosper." sa\d the Lancashire man to n Wellington Post representative a day or two ago. "You have every .advantage there. You have the climate, plenty of rain to beep the air humid, and then you have the other essential, cheap coal.". • ,* , , "What about cheap cotton?" asked the. reporter. '-'„».' "Well," replied the man of cotton, "you have Queensland and North Australia, and, tho South Sea Islands a great deal nearer to hand -than w Sou' thorn States are to Lancashire • and cotton has been tried there with success. During the American Civil War in the sixties, for two or three years Lancashire was cut off from its sole 50urce of raw cotton in the Confederate States, which were then under blockade. What was the result? Cotton was grown in Queensland and in Fiji in fair quantities and of a good quality, and helped to prevent absolute ruin to Lancashire When the war was over, of. course, the market for South Sea cotton was swamped by the renewal pf imports into Lancashire from the States. The distance was too great for any hope of competition. Suppose, now that Queensland v had a market within two thousand miles of her cotton fields, there would be a sufficient inducement to recommence growing the cotton plant. Then you could probably draw from the Islands quantities of the very finest cotton. I don't think there would be any difficulty about the supaly of reasonably cheap cotton, if you could assure,growers a market for their produce." ' ■ . ... After an ./explanation or some or tile details of manufacture, the visitor remarked on the quantity of cotton goods imported. An increase in the tariff would be an encouragement for capital to enter into local manufacture. Machinery did practically all the work, and the question of. labour and wages would not bulk so large as to cripple the infant, industry in competition with Lancashire. ' "Bat the Arbitration Laws here? 3iigßC3ted the reporter. . > The visitor confessed ignorance or that important part of the industrial machine*. He urged again' the cheapness nf cntl, the suitability of the climate, and the filliT> it. would give to progress in the Islands. „ ' ii "I don't know how Australia would act in the matter," he said. > "It is simply a suggestion, an idea of mine. I am firmly convinced that something could be, done. You might make the West Coast the Lancashire of the Southern Hemisphere, certainly of Australasia. Y r ou need not have the slums and the evils. of factory life wo have m Lancashire. They are a legacy from our fathers. Lancashire was the pioneer ot tho factory system, and has to pay heavily for her enterprise in the injury done to the physique of her people. That is unnecessary in the light of our experience now. Things are very much better. There is no reason why a cotton factory or a cotton town should be an unhealthy placo. it you can keep the steam out. That's what spoils the mills in other countries, j/ou don't, want humidifiers on the West Coast. The rain will do it all f or you. . The- conditions .are simply ideal. The, establishment of such an industry would lead to the establishment of other kindred manufactures.' Yon might get \your hematite and your ironsand to go then. Speaking, of course, as a stranger to vonr beantiful country, I, can tell you there is a- great opening for enterprise in tho establishment of the cotton mdustr? on the West Coast. i