THE FLAX INDUSTRY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4602, 17 September 1923, Page 1

THE FLAX INDUSTRY.

NEW ZEALAND ARTICLE BEST. In an address delivered at the invitation of the Shannon Chamber of Commerce Mr A. Seifert pointed out that, while pne ton of fibre was obtained from eight and a naif tons of Nov/ Zealand leaf, it took 60 tp tons of Manila leaf to produce the same quantity of fibre. In the case of sisal it required 30 tons of rawmaterial to make one ton of the finest product If the to.w and strippci slips were added to the baled fibre produced in New Zealand the production was one tpn of fibre from six and a half tons of leaf. This showed that New Zealand producers were extremely fortunate in this respect. Touching on the quantities of sisal and Manila and New Zealand fibre produced, the speaker said that the export of the first-named from the Yukatan, Mexico, only recently had been as high as 700,000' bales, .or 140,000 tons per year. The production of Manila fibre was also very high. New Zealand shipped year about 12,000 tons, and had never exceeded 29/100. The speaker maintained that theie was plenty of room for the Dominion's produce bn the .world’s market. He also pointed out that the production of fibre per acre from New Zealand flax was the highest in the world.