The New Zealand Flax Industry.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue IV, 26 July 1902, Page 218

The New Zealand Flax Industry.

Tlie importance of this industry to tin* colony is easily appreciated when it is remembered that the yearly export of the prepared fibre is worth about a third of a million pounds sterling. In value flax ranks about

seventh among* our exports, the quantity sent away by us being worth the amount of wheat we export. With improvements in the method of preparation the industry is certain to assume much larger proportions in the future than it has yet done. It is stated that there has been

continual improvement in the quality of the flax sent f rward for export of late. In .Tune, 1901, when grading was not compulsory, 168 bales were examined by the Government grader at Auckland. Last month the- number of bales graded for export was 5482, this being the whole

quantity intended for export. The effect of last month’s floods on the quality of the flax is apparent in a great deal of the fibre now arriving. A large proportion has had to be consigned to the fourth and fifth of the five classes into which the flax is graded.