NEW ZEALAND HEMP.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 281, 27 September 1889, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND HEMP.

A BBPOKiP IXOBI THE AofiK* GfiSEBAr,. ■ .V*. ■ — ■ ii"-^ To tb^! H6n % thi Colonial Secretary, ?'_.... Wellington. SM^Jti'&pw be^ to lay before you the tenant $he inquiries I have made from a v*«j^ ! d#:scftirees-in. relation to the prospects of the New Zeaktfd hemp industry. I must; begin by confirming what I have already said that there is no secret or sp£ : ci«l uses to which this hemp is fUUv It continues to be used, as it hftii been for ntany years, in the wfcftjkc. manufactures &s Manilk 4q4 j^riM^^hd inVdroiktnre: with «»r substJt«tiiw\\ for them ; also, more lately and *« «t much larger extent, in admixture with.. jule. The goods made of it without admixture with other fibres are so small an Amount that they* do not. touch the great knlk of the fibres coming to this country. I ani sen.ding'jro«, in one of the next mail bo^'esV.a few .samples of th i avttcleß for winch ! ft isoeitig vwed. ',-.,..• As so often happens i.n many trades, the mete fact of New Zealand hemp being obtaiuJiMe in Jargei- qoajtt'tities. than heretofore, ! gave'ii a" niuch better place ahwrtS the/V.>liKble flbVes ; and fresh we* Would most likely be fonrtd for it if Only a large .supjrt}- could'be stendily kept up of really well-dressed se*ts, bright and even in eolouranii %«tl in texture, with the strawy substance entirely got rid of. tfnfortua»tely this is not so now . With, a greatly increased prpduotion. there has come a disti»^t deterioration in quality, bq that, in« ■Mttsd of the piosneot being better of Us «s<? foi^separatje fabrics, 'tlie balk lately corßip homp is difficult to use m ain'iixtrtrfe with or ' kh&iftthtioh (oi ; MAUiTIa and siseal. Cdmplainfs are v<<rVs ' t»E the bad state in which recent .-sbfyments have, arrived ; and not ouly h*,\* ulldwahces as high as M ov £7 a toft had to be. inadt' ou delivei-ies, but SnßwiA^ cuseß, buyers have refused to take *Utis\jt»rY at alj., If this: goes on, the liemp "*\U get a bad. name again, and the hold whJc.h. it has gained upon the market will be jost. ', •

For the. present at any rate, then, it may he Vaijl that, the existing uses of New Zealand hemp here will not change. But, sub* jeeito,tliis condition, the demand for it would certainly go on hicreaaiug, ■ unless the price of Manilla should seriously fall, provided -always that it came from the Colony in a lieally wfcll .dressed stele. A*iwiming this to be eowect, it is of eoußse very impottanttfl look at the proportion New. Zedfcnd hemp bears to the other, fibren imported here. Flax must not be. left , out altogether, became although not much has yet come of the experiments to&tt xjxxv hemp for competing with it for s l'i'ai>ipg,puipoßes, these experiments might '!sueeee.d by-and-by. ■ Taking, then, the imports of hemp,. flax, and juse £ato the United Kingdom during the lour. years 1884 to 1887, the amount of hemp and tow averaged in round numkert?,«BjoOO tons per anmnn, of flax and tow 7^,000, ton*, and of jute 283,000 tons. But in 1888 hemp had risen to 91,000 tans, flax to ,92^000 tons, and. jute to 314,OOOjfcoas, .while tha proportion of New Zaalanfl|»emp was only about 2000 tons; and notwithstanding the great increase in pro- ' portion during the present year, a larga in- ! eraue is also taking place in other sup-, plien, so that the proportion still remains wrull. " Looking further back, to 1880 ©r r .ven 1873, there had not been any great Variation in the imports of all the fibreß into i thjs country. For instance, in 1880 there ! were G2,OQ tons of hemp, 77,000 tons of , flax, and 282,000 tons of jute ; while in J 1873 the total was nearly the same, namely «2,ooG<*pn*<tf hemp, 96,000.tdnsqf flax, and ASl.OflO-fehai of jute. The fluctuations in values were greater, these having been as lugh as nearly £11,000,000, and as low as £7,000,00«) duricg the five years 18H4 to I 188^.., Reaving, however, flax out of oon- i .shUiaJion, and taking hemp only, thepvoporXioji of New Zealand fibre cannot sensibly affect die trade* seeing- that from 1884 to 1887 the total import oMiempa had averagM 08,000. tons, ana in 1888, 91,000 tons. <\n,the; vthok^ therefore, it may be laid <hft,t no augmentation likely to be. made in th& .. New [ Zealand supply will be gwat enough to, cauße matcjaal disturbanc* in the market her,f . .The danger to m lies in , the iU-ayes^ed condition-bf ( what . is being sent; 'arid i£ the increase which may take plactrm tl^e priiductionof other fibres.. It is quite beyond doubt .'that' the recent rise in prioes was diiei to a sudden outbreak : ot 'speculation \n the United States, and <£ thaf the immediate cause of that specula'tSdii th'e'endi'mou3 demand which had sprung u^ for binder twine. Tsji t^'Uhree yeara'ago tliis production of Kemp : had : sumced for all the world's requirements,; but now in the single article of bhider'twiheVit' is -estimated that this year from" 56,000 to 60,090 tons of twine will ,b# wanted for the United States alone. It wai foreseen by speculators; that one. of two thing* must happen, either that, new Buhßjtitpte.s for Manilla aud sisal must bo found, pr that prices must go up rapidly ; and the rivalry of Jtwo combination!, each of »iiich.BtrQve to grt the control of the Manilla and sisal markets, caused the suddei^vipe.jn. price. What perplexed the London market so much was the. extreme range a'jjd'tuiprice of the fluctuations that 'hemp is still unapproachable for thS particular uses to which it is put, while Hi 'abundance and the cheapness <f labour in its native regions seem to preclnde a limit to its production. It is not so long 'ago that this limit was supposed to., have, been reached at 300,000 bales, whftetw-lastyear 660,000 bales were pro<lu«ed/iknß this year it im said that there will bid 900,000. A transfer is taking place to «OBoe«extent in the distinction of shipmeats at ithePhillipines, 30,000 to 35,000 more. bales having been shipped direct to the States in the first six months of 1889, and aa many-bales less to England; while »»me .six months, besides 200,00 C bajajiisbipped direct'to the States, 63.00 C bales went over there from this' Country Yet on the 30th of June there was no stools whatever left at either Boston or iNev YoTK. ' Stocxs of hempen yam were gone anVaff^ritsMV which can be sold at i pif fit of about £15 a tori delivered in NeV York, its consumption has grown fron 65,000 baleß 10 years ago to 200,000 bales and stocks of ,^ , have also . disappeared These things' point to a largely increase* demand for £U;{ienip products in America and infant even lead to a comparator soaMitynn Lbtlddn, bat whatever thiß scat citjfe*Jay> turn/ out to be, th* New Zealan supply cannot do much to supply the void London is sure to keep a certain hold oi |j^e^Ma*nilla production, because in spite o

the growing traasfer of direct shipments to the States, a good deal of the American j damand will go on being met from here, on I account of the regular steam communica- 1 lion ensuring deliveries at conraot dates. ' Apart from its iatrinsic superiority io all other hemps, Manila has this ipeoial advantage over New Zealand, ttiat is, it is prepared in the same way as it has been f r generations, and it is sent to this country in wellknown sorts which can always be depended upon. The buyer, whether for the spot o,r the futures, knows what he is.£buying.-and is sure of what he wiUjget ; whereas, if he/buys ia New .he ■>> neither &>& buying' what he really wants, nor whether he will get what has been sold to him. This makes him afraid to lose the chance of making his contract for Manila even at high prices, lest whetftKefNeft Zealand hemp arrives he nlar' {Incl' 1 it useless for his; par-, ticular" requirement. The ' question therefore, which real'y presses for our colonists, is whether they can make regular and constant shipments of their hemp in reasonable uniformity of quality, texture and colour, or whether there are still to be only irregular and intermittent Shipments of uncertain and uneven aorts. ' "Moreover, this tbuches closely on the discounts and charges in account sales, ik whica so much complaint has been made by New Zealand shippers. 1 ondon contracts for Manila hemp , arp almost always made on "cost, freight, and insurance terms," and if buyers could only- rely on getting plenty of New Zealand hemp of uniform quality, contracts for it would also be made on those terms, whereitpon the charges complained of would disappear from account sales. A few of the New Zealand brands have already an established name, and the price of " good Auckland " has been steadily higher than for other sorts, owing synply, tp the jtjuyer being able tfl i dejpentl tipon; getting what lie had'hcfught."' On the whole, then, the 'prospects, for the colony might be described as distinctly encouraging, if it were not for two things which have to be taken into account The first of these is the opinion which seems universal in the trade, that prices will aoon fall, making the chances f the New Zealand industry uncertain. If the production of Manila should go on increasing to such an extent as to bring down its price in this market much below £30, and if sisal should also come down to anything li c its i old price of £20, the market for Zew Zealand hemp would very likely be lost except for the best sorts. '. Under these circumstances, the expectation that as much as 00,000 tons of binder twine will he wanted ' this year for the states alone becomes of tho greatest impoitance. There is not much chance of a great demand for binder twine on the Con- . tinent, because,,; owing to various causes, Cont nental countries will not employ machines to anything like the samfe. extent eteari England "and America* > ' Buttlie'American demand for twine is sure to go on augmenting, though it will riot again increase by leaps and bounds as it Ims done, i because even last year great areas. of cereal-growing country m the States were still be ng provided"' with in achines for which binder twi c in prodigious quantities was wanted all. at onco; while these areas beingserved with machines the twine wanted for them will only form one of the regular annual' r^ttftemedifev V More twine will bo wanted every year, but gripes .will not be drawnup and down 'by speouKtors as.the,y have been. Under these circumstances it is certainly very curious that there should be so general an opinion in the trade here that prices will go down. Here $ what maybe called a new requirem? Nt, which in a single year,:jn a single CQunty;;and for a singly takes up ; an amount of fibre not much less than the average import of hemp into the United Kingdom 1 during a long series of years, yet the experienced London traders think thflt prices of all fibres are likely <to fall. The second point is that jute might become a formidable competitor in making biiider twine. It is the cheapest rfllire'Hh.e world produces, and' there is no probable limit to its production. It -is steadily coming more into uso for adu ixture with the valuable hemps, a:id new processes have been invented in America,., enabling it.- o be largely used for gating binder jtwne. if these prioce*Bses shoiilcl finally succeed, the result will be of immense importance ; for the import of jute j into the Unittd Kingdom is'" a re.idy j 820 000~tdns to 91,0(0 tons of hemp, and it will always h& mu< h cht aper, than Manli of sisa 1 , while the increase of its production may bo very greaiy Of! e<;:irse it can neve; como into Competition with Manila for heavy cordage , •-,..-. - Thus the mai;kefrf6L* >*6\v Zealand' hemp m/Cv still Y>e s id to bo in a transit oi s*;aie. I have cnroiully collated a miss of Tetiils and opinions, from which I have. endeavoured to < elect the salient on which th re is the most consensus of opinion, tnd I be'ieve y^u jpiay relySyith^ safety on what ' 'is here stated ; thougli.the,sin^ple truth is, that there was very little' new to say after all. ' ••'■ •-'•■'• I 'have, &c, '■■- (Sgd) I<\ D. Bell. LoHaon,!S.W., Oth August, 1880.