THE HEMP QUOTATIONS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 977, 18 November 1910, Page 8

THE HEMP QUOTATIONS.

ffiE HIGH COMMISSIONER'S CABLES' RELIABLE? A. reply, given, in tho House of Repreientatires yesterday I>y tho Hon. T. Mackenzie, Minister for Agriculture, to \lv. Newman, M.P. for Jlnriawatu, who , isked whether it was truo that the- prices if Nefr Zealand ■' hemp cabled from tonlon by the High Commissioner are inac:urate, raises tho question as to whether ;ho"se interested in the industry •. would lot be better''without'- these" particular luotations. . '". .' .'■■', ' ... '■','■ ' ' Mr. .Newman, said,.that.,the.importance if accuracy and reliability, in the reports ;abled by tho High Commissioner in- connection with ■ prices : of homp in London ivas evident; from the fact that the Majority 'of millers in tho' flax-.districts pay royalty for . green flax , at per ton jased on tho London market prices as juoted by tho High Commissioner, and ;f the prices ha A. been wrongly quoted it ivonld mean that the royalty paid,by millers during tho: current month would be about 3s. per:.ton: too much. He trusted that in the interests of the flax industry the Minister, -would take steps to have this important matter inquired into without delay, with a. view to making any alterations required iii order that nothing but authentic information with regard to the state of the Homo markets' might bo cabled out to the Dominion. The Hon. T.,. Mackenzie, in, reply, said that it would be inadvisable for small millers' to.. basp their pricfrs on tho High Commissioner's telegrams. .They ought to have other means, upon:,'jv,lneli t 0 ] ]aso their prices. Tho telegrams 'came out simply, as information'to'ttio public. Ho

ound that the High Commissioner's.quoations had not varied from other quotations in anything Hko the degree- which \Tr. Newman stated. Tho High Commissioner's Toports must bo gathered from a lumber of sources, necessarily. It was imiDSsiblo. for him to have tho same grip of ;rado as thoso in tho tra'ds. Thus it was :hat tlie millers should base their coniracts, on the reports of thoso who handled tho article at Home.