New Zealnd Flax

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 130, 9 May 1889, Page 3

New Zealnd Flax

CAU'~E<OF THE AMERICAN TMiif * -vrrv

Ma H.JP. Barber, who returned to Auckland from America by the Zealaudia has given the Star some information as "to the cause of the demand ior New Zealand flax, which ha» lately been very great, and kindly given his •views to a' reporter as follows : — j 41 The secret of the rise in flax," he said, was-a corner in sisal hemp grown in Mexico. The largest of the cordage companies" there have formed themselves into a ' trust' and they i .cornered -those who make binder twine. "' The la;tter u cbmbined and bought up , *11 the sisal available for the year and then put up the price about double the usual" ratei ' That made a wonderful difference sto all those who used lunder machines, and the result was that in some parts of the Western States binder machines are not used *t all. The farmer^ ate using in their *tead what ..they call headers, large machines which are driven through a -field of wheat, taking off the tops, and leaving the stubble behind. The deader also tiireshes^ihe grain and turns it into bags." The machine is pushed by horses Instead of being drawn, and in this way . the grain is not trod down by the animals. The flax is used as a substitute for making iope and such purposes. Flax ordinarily costs more than sisal. But sisal if as good as the New Zealand product, is not so long as that of New Zealand flax, but owing to the corner in sisal it could not be got at alLwhen I was in the- States; New Zealand .flax was being used in its stead. 1 ; As to whether the demand for flarj will Temaingood for another year is an open question. The cordage companies do not know whether, having once usedthe New Zealand flax as a substitute for sisal, ..they may not continue to do so. They complain bitterly of the quality of some of the New Zealand flax, useless ends that never Should be sent being included in the shipments.