FLAX CULTURE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19180, 10 December 1927, Page 15

FLAX CULTURE.

MILLERS WANT GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE. [THE PRESS Special Service.] .AUCKLAND, December 9.. As the outcome of a meeting in Auckland of the committee of the Northern Flaxmillers* Association it was decided to circularise the New Zealand Flaxruillers' Association and all others interested iu the industry suggesting a conference of Dominion interests at Auckland in June, 1928. Mr K L. Broad, president of the Northern Association, referred to the necessity and equity of a State subsidy on hemp, which at the ruling market values, he said, left little or no surplus for flaxmillers. This, it was suggested, would form one of the principal topics for discussion at the proposed conference.

The consensus of opinion of ,tbe meeting was that any subsidy should come into operation only when the export value of hemp fell below a certain figure—in other words, when it become unremuuerative. Emphasis was laid on the fact that the industry employed a greater percentage of labour compared with the capital invested than any other haviiicr a direct relation to land pursuits, and that therefore its healthy maintenance was a valuable factor in alleviating the problem of unemployment.

In any case, said Mr Broad, the ■State subsidised wheat and apple growing and herd-testing substantially, as well as providing aid for other industries, leaving the impression that flax culture- was the Cinderella of them all.

A suggestion advanced by Mr Broad and endorsed by the meeting was that the Go\ernn]ent could profitably provide employment for a large number of those out of work by bringing substantial areas of Crown land swamps such as existed in the Hanraki district under cultivation as flax areas, which later would find an eager market among millers. "rt iniplit be preferable for the Government to erect its own mills on them when it would realise the difficulties with which the industry is confronted,'' observed one member.

Tt was decifledto convey the sugges tion to the Government.