FLAX INDUSTRY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 278, 24 November 1936, Page 8

FLAX INDUSTRY

GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE CONSIDERATION BY CABINET ( Per pres, Amoclatlon. ) WELLINGTON, Nov. 23. Cabinet gave consideration to-day to the question of assisting the phormium tenax industry. The Prime Minister, Hon. M. J. Savage, said after the conclusion of the meeting of Cabinet that altogether apart from the manufacture of wollpacks, the Government would assist the flax industry generally in providing new machinery and putting the industry on a better basis. The Minister of Labour, Hon. H. T Armstrong, accompanied by departmental' officials, visited Foxton this I morning and inspected the flax-grow-ing areas and the mill. There is no doubt, he said on his return, that some initial mistakes were made in the New Zealand flax industry, but against that it is equally doubtless now that the products of the mill, woolpacks and textiles, are very good indeed and it would be futile to argue the question as to whether flax woolpacks or those manufactured from jute are better. The cost of manufacture necessarily must come into consideration. As the whole New Zealand flax industry is worth developing for the simple reasons that the country can produce first-class raw material and if the industry is properly developed it will provide employment for fairly large numbers, in all probability the Government will decide to give some assistance to one of its oldest industries in New Zealand.