GOVERNMENT BONUS FOR IMPROVED METHODS OF FLAX TREATMENT.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 20 August 1910, Page 2

GOVERNMENT BONUS FOR IMPROVED METHODS OF FLAX TREATMENT.

To the Editor. Sir,—T do not care as a rule to write letters to tlic Press on flax milling, as 1 consider the (lax millers business is his own, and nobody else's, although ni:iny persons outside the business at times have quite a lot to say about"- it. Hut when mis-statements are made, or statements made entirely fallacious or misleading, then the public, should be apprised of the position. The statements of Messrs Stansell and Murdoch as set forth in yours of Kith inst. are of this kindi: The application for a bonus did not set forth that it should be given for labour-saving machinery. A crude proposal of that kind would hardly be Jitting to place before a Minister placed in liis honourable position by votes of the. workers. I refer my readers to the Palmerston papers of tilieLMfh .June. It will lie seen that the proposal was that Government assist the industry by giving bonuses to encourage inventions to make improvements in the methods of treating flax, and for scientific discoveries of methods of utilising tlic waste products. All governments recOgnsc that the fostering of new or struggling industries i.s a true part of t.hei rbusine.ss, as protectors ot the industrial needs of the State. Take, for example, England and Jamaican bananas, Germany and beet sugar, America and Manila hem]), Australia and petroleum; and so on, ad lib.

The Association hopes that the new methods may abolish the present crude and bnrbarious methods of treating flax, and that the now methods may produce a iibre equal to Irish flax. A fibre that may be used in textile fabrics. The bonus offered would induce scientific inventors to discover methods of utilising the waste products which aro known tt> be ol great value—probablv the most valuable asset of the industry. Tt is known that valuable gums and dyes are now lost to us; that the fibre is more capable i'.an ~ny other of taking brilliant dyes; that alcohol the demand f<n which as a motive power is unlimited can be be manufactured from the vegetation; that waste fibre and tow dust can be. and is used, as leather substitute or cattle food.

It is expected that the labour reqiiiroinonts of the industry will bo more than doublde as the demand foi skilled operations will increase with the new demands of the new industries; and. indeed, on account of that skill high wages may be thfi o<rdo>r of the dav.

Criticism is good at times and it has now enabled mo to place the details before those people who' were not entirely conversant with the position. Tt is necessary that tlio employees and their friends .should know it and how the bonus will a fleet their interests, no doubt. J think I have shown that it is the interests of millers and workers that the boiui.>. and a largo bonus too, be wit or. Ih<? TCstiniaeos righ taway. Who will start the new industries (and it need not necessarily be a mil'leiO, and wlial will be the wages, can safely be left to the parties concerned. Shannon itself in the eventuation of the schemes for methods of trenting flax would no longer he a onehorse show, but might eventually be dignified bv a town board', or even a borough council, with J. II SiansHl as mayor, and William -Murdoch as alderman. —T am .etc.. JOSUPII LIGGIXS.