FLAX AND KAURI GUM

Hokitika Guardian, 8 October 1931, Page 4

FLAX AND KAURI GUM

WHY INDUSTRIES DECLINED. LACK OF FORESIGHT. CHRISTCHURCH, October l. The decline of the New Zealand flax and kauri gum industries might have been prevented by scientific research and the application of scientific meanods, claimed Dr. H. G. Denham, Professor of Chemistry at Canterbury College, in an address on "The Scientific Control of Industry” at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Employers’ Association. Tn a country like New Zealand it was almost impossible tor a- relatively small business concern to maintain a research stuff, he said, but this might possibly be overcome ay several industrial concerns establishing a fellowship to work out at a university college a problem affecting them all.

Taking the flax industry as an example, Professor Denham said that nobody questioned the quality of New Zealand phormium fibre for mai\y purposes, ’ and yet it had practically disappeared from the Home market, unable to face the competition of cheaper and, in some cases, more satisfactory substitutes.

Had those engaged in this industry taken a long-range view of their problems, atld Invested steadily in scientific research as applied to their mechanical, bleaching ,and utilisation problems,. it was possible that the industry would not have fallen into its present parlous state. "We rested content in the belief that in kauri gum we possessed a natural asset of great monetary value, which was indispensable for the manufacture of certain varnishes,” continued Dr. Denham. "But team-work during the past few years Ims resulted in there being put upon the market synthetic materials which are cheaper and better than the average kauri gum. and our market for this commodity has pracirally disappeared. Had a small levy on the export value of this material been collected in the past and devoted to financing research into problems associated with this gum, the position might well have been reversed.”