THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 1922. FLAXMILLING INDUSTRY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4400, 7 April 1922, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 1922. FLAXMILLING INDUSTRY.

Q .Stability of a district does not depend so much upon any particular kind of. produce grown therein as upon the variety of things cultivated. For example, one of the most uniformly prosperous districts in New Zealand is that of Franklin (Pukekohe), the reason being that many of the farmers are not dependent solely on. dairy produce for their incomes; but are in receipt of moneys from the sale of potatoes, onions, and other staples. From this point of view alone, the effort to enlarge the flaxmilling industry on the Hauraki Plains should be encouraged, so that, along with beef-stock fattening, and secondary industries, such as bee-keeping, it may make the commercial life .blood of the Plains healthier during the periodic slumps in the prices of dairy produce. LESSONS. FROM ABROAD.

It is truly said that familiarity breeds contempt; certainly we in New Zealand are very contemptuous of the actual and potential wealth of our flax resources, thousands of acres having been destroyed without much consideration. The leading fibre experts of other countries have a high appreciation of "phormium tenax,” or New Zealand flax, and in America, they are planting flax Kt a cost of 150 dollars (roughly £3O) per acre ; it is also being cultivated by the Japanese, in the island of Formosa. The reason of this preference for the New Zealand article is that whereas it takes 18 tons of green leaf to produce a ton of manilia hemp, and 25 tons of sisal, an average of 9 tons of New Zealand flax will yield one ton of fibre. The Americans and the Japanese are shrewd commercials, and we should pay some attention to the opinions they hold in respect to the commercial value of our native fibre. Here we have a valuable plant indigenous to New Zealand, and are ruthlessly destroying it. while the people of countries in which, our flax is an exotic are paying dearly to have it introduced and propagated. Ours is a queer old world.

PREPARATION FOR FARMING’ There is another aspecCof the question to be weightily considered—one that should appeal more directly to those having, the interests of the Hauraki Plains at heart in regard to its ultimate producing capacity as farming land. During the Ministerial tour of the Plains this week (Hon. D. H. Guthrie and party) it was clearly demonstrated that on the peat lands in the Patetonga district it took nearly a decade after drainage to rid the soil entirely of “sourness.'’ A local settler pointed out paddock after paddock which had been sown in grass three and ’four times, and yet, owing to the sourness of the soil, the result was still so poor that in some instances the owners could keep only a very few head of stock--and in one case none at all. Here is where the value of flaxmilling comes in. Certain parties are willing to mill some thousands of acres all told, and to pay the Crown Lands Department handsome royalties, for a period of ten years. In order to cut the flax and induce new growth if is necessary to put drains through at regular intervals, and so drain the land. Tram lines must be laid for the haulage of the green leaf out' to the mill; the weight of the trolleys of heavy flax, or the horses, and the trampling about of the cutters inevitably solidifies the partially drained peat. Under such conditions the land is within a decade made much more suitable for farming than it would be if cleared right away. In the meantime, the Department would make a good profit out of the transaction, and the land would be sold ultimately for perhaps quadruple its present value. Instead of the unfortunate—and sometimes very inexperienced—original holder having to wait ten long years for the soil to become sweet and productive, it would prove good dairying coun- ; try right away. This has been the experience in the greatest flax swamp in the Dominion,comprising some 25,000 acres in the Manawatu (Wellington province) district, and the results would be duplicated on the Hauraki Plains. For the sake of stability of large areas of the Plains as productive districts, it is to be hoped that there will be. no more wanton -destruction of valuable flax, and that those who are prepared to risk their all in developing the industry will receive reasonable sympathy and encouragement.