FUTURE OF FLAX.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4733, 4 August 1924, Page 2

FUTURE OF FLAX.

(To the Editor], Sir,—The well-written article in your issue of July 21, relative to Mr G. Sirerle’s proposed experiment in flax-farming, appealed to me greatly, as did also the reference to the progress of that very practical miller, Mr Fateman, of Manawatu memory. Mr Smerle is undoubtedly working along the right lines, and has an' in» telligent appreciation of the possibilities in regard to the cultivation, milling, and marketing ofi phormium tenax, the New Zealand native flax. Side-cutting, if I recollect aright, was experimented with some fifteen years ago by Mr George Seifert, a remarkably successful miller of Tokpmaru, some sixteen miles from Palmerston North. As. I left the district shortly afterwards I did not learn of the results.

The bane of the flax-farming and milling industry in New Zealand has always been the violent fluctuations of the market, but, as Mr Smerle states there is a great need of scientific study in regard to every phase of the industry, from soil to sil.lt-— adulterated silk, of course. There are aisp great possibilities for the utilisation of the by-products. /When the processes of milling and treating have been sufficiently developed, there will be an immensely greater market for the fibre and by-products, and the full development of the industry will add greatly to the wealth of the Dominion, More and more it is becoming apparent that, in putting the most bf our eggs into the one basket—or rather into the cream can—the stability of the Dominion is becoming undermined. The Government should certainly give sympathetic encouragement for experimentation, and not stand selfishly by and let a fe.w men do all the pioneering w’ork, unaided, for the benefit of the Dominion as'awhole. Anyone who has an elementary knowledge of commercial principles knows that the supply of a given article must keep pace with the de- • maud, for otherwise substitutes will be sought and developed, to the detriment of the original product. *niere is need for a tremendous increase in the amount of fibre marketed, eo that all demands can be reasonably met, thereby avoiding a check to the industry on account of failure to supply the needs of overseas manufacturers. One does not need to be a financial genius to see that, in the event of a slump in dairy produce, meat, or wool prices while fibre was on a goodrising market, the sale of the fibre in sufficient quantities would have awonderfully steadying effect on the finances of the Dominion as a whole. For the sake bf the common-weal it is to be hoped that Mr Smerle, Mr Pateman, and others on the Plains who are blazing the trail of future prosperity will meet with the success they richly, deserve. thos. e. McMillan. Leeston, Canterbury, July 30, 1924.