GOOD LINEN

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 59, 7 September 1926, Page 20

GOOD LINEN

I ♦ ! f HANDKERCHIEF IN COMMERCE, f 1 A VALUABLE ULSTER INDUSTRY. ] f EXPORTS TO NEW ZEALAND. I (By an Ulster Correspondent)

It is a striking fact that is often commented upon that, considering its size, Ulster should possess the largest shipbuilding yard, the largest single tobacco factory, the largest rope and cable works, the largest linen manufacturing concern, and the largest twine and netting manufactures in the world. This is undoubtedly a notable record for an area of 3,351,970 acres, with a population of 1,255,881 people, which can show an annual value in its principal sea-borne exports of £57,801,000. The exports of Ulster go to all parts of the seven seas, and, naturally, her commercial relationships with New Zealand are of the closest. There are incidentally many other ties which bind Ulster and New Zealand, for the latter contains among its population may people of Ulster stock, while Ulster has just paid tribute to one of her distinguished sons—the late Prime Minister of New Zealand—by naming the avenue which leads to the new Parliament Buildings "Massey avenue," which will perpetuate a name revered throughout the North of Ireland.

FLAX-SPINNING CAPACITY.

In order of value the principal exports which Ulster sends overseas are linen, agricultural products, ships, made-up goods (shirts, collars, etc.), whisky, tobacco, machinery, ropes, and woollen goods and apparel. There are some remarkable facts in connection with the linen trade which are worth recording. For instance, in the small area around Belfast there are one million flax spindles in use. This is equivalent to one-third of the entire flax-spinning capacity of the world, and is equal to the spindles of France. Belgium, and Czecho-Slovakia combined. It is also estimated that, of an all-Ireland paid-up capital of approximately £70,000,000, the money invested in the linen trade alone amounts to over half of that figure. The latest returns show that 40,000 looms are engaged in* this North of Ireland in the production of linen, and the annual output of these machines in a normal year, if joined in a continuous band of four feet in width, would stretch from Belfast to New Zealand sixteen times. The industry affords direct employment to some 65,000 Ulster people, while another 45,000 find employment in the subsidiary trades. Part of the raw material for the linen industry is grown locally, and experiments are being made with a new type of flax seed from which improved results are anticipated. The greater portion of the flax to enable an output on the scale indicated has, of course, to be imported. Before the wa» the principal supply came from Russia, but since the revolution in that country in 1917 the supply has been greatly diminished. The climate of Ulster is specially suited for the bleaching of linen, and this factor has played an important part in the making of Irish bleached linen famous all over the world.

VALUE OF EXPORTS

During the year 1925 the total exports of linen goods and linen yarns from Ulster to Great Britain and overseas were valued at £19,310,723, compared with £18,800,000 in 1924, and £16,859,000 in 1923, and pre-eminent among the purchasers of these exports were the United States, Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Dominion of Canada. The greater part of the whole of the linen exports from the United Kingdom are made up from the aunual output of the Ulster factories, and int 1923 the total value of the linen exports going to New Zealand was £211,223 and in 1924 £209,010. The total exports iu quantities and values of linen piece goods exported from Ulster to New Zealand during 1923 were 1,725,100 square yards of a value of £144,429; during 1924 the exports amounted to 1,608,400 square yards of a value of £142,174; and during 1925 1,908,500 square yards of a value of £183,932. In common with the other industries of the United Kingdom which have been affected by post-war depression, the linen trade of Ulster has not escaped, yet notwithstanding this, during the first five months of the present year the exports to New Zealand have amounted to 552,500 "square yards of £52,089 in value. Of the total export trade of the linen firms in Ulster, linen piece goods to the extent of 83,680,700 square yards were sent over- J seas in 1925 of a value of £6,867,802, while for the first five months of the present year the quantities exported amounted -to 33,923,500 square yards of a value of £2,544,021. Handkerchiefs not ia.tthe piece exported in 1925 amounted

to 3,127,853 dozens of a value of £901,220, while the corresponding figure for the first five monthß of the present year was £526,438. The export of finished linen thread in 1925 amounted to 24,422cwt of a value of £864,031, and for the first five months of this year to 10,105cwt of a value of £359,830. la 1925 the value of all other sorts of linen manufacture exported amounted to £1,289,363, ;.nd for the first five months of this year it has totalled £557,895. The total values of these different exports for the year 1925 amounted to £11,207,267, and for the fust five months of the present year the values are estimated at £4,272,874.

EXTENDING THE TRADE

It will thus be seen that, from the point of view of the linen trade alone, Ulster is essentially an exporting country, and is anxious still further to develop hercommercialrelationships with her kith and kin across the seas. When the Government of Northern Ireland was established five and a half years ago it included a Ministry of Commerce, the activities of which are mainly drected towards the development of trade in Ulster products throughout the world and securing adequate supplies of raw materials for Ul.sfer industries. Many New Zealand merchants already know that the Ministry is prepared to supply potential luyers of Ulster goods with the names and addresses of suitable suppliers, and alternatively to bring their requirements to the notice of such suppliers. For the information of commercial houses in New Zealand it may also be stated that those who desire to form agency connections with Ulster manufacturers should furnish the Ministry with the usual references at 13, Wellington place, Belfast, while New Zealand merchants who are visiting the Old Country should visit the Ministry's offices at 1, Wellington place, Belfast.