Manamatu Herald. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1890. Flax.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 28 February 1890, Page 2

Manamatu Herald. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1890. Flax.

The last London cablegram is so satisfactory, that every one will be asking what it is that we have been alii so frightened about ? Below we reproduce extracts piibUsh'ecl by the Evening Post of a circular from Messrs Ide and Christie, the perusal of which will be intensely interest* ing to all concerned in the flax industry. Some day soon we may hope .for the true explanation of the Wellington attempted scare. The leport states : —

"We are indebted- to Messrs Aitken, Wilson & Co., for a very in. terestingaud valuable circular, issued by Messrs Ide, and Christie, fibre brokers, of London, on the position and prospects of the Now Zealand flax trade, dated 3rd January. The subject is one of such great 'interest here at the present moment that we are sure our readers \fill be gjad of the hinta given by Messrs Ide and Chris ie, suggested by their experience as brokers, and to know what their opinion is generally aa to the prpsp'ertS of the, industry. They point out that in 1878 only 227 tons of Phormium tenax fibre arrived in London, the value then beingf quoted at £18 6s to £20 6 8 . In 1889 the arrivals amounted to 7233 tons^the value being £23 to JE3I per ton. The lii'rivats last year were, in fact, greater than the total of the eleven previous years. The brokers may well term this a gigantic do velopment. The arrivals during the I three previous years wece as follows : —1886, 142 tons ; 1887, 723 ; 1888, 4212 tons. In addition to the quantity landed as above in 1867, 2364 tons were transhipped direct for America or the Continent. Messrs Ide and Christie say :— " A few facts cannot be too strongly impressed upon growers : as a rope making material Manila stands preeminent— ns yet New Zealand has not been imported equally clean regular : to so prepare it would be most oostly, and even then it would not command the like value. Further, sisal will for all inland or dry uses be preferred both for its whiteness, regularity, and cleanliness. In these respects America rather than ourselves would be the first to abandon New Zealand for the Mexican product, especially if any material fall in the price of the latter should occur. For marine use the New Zealand is certainly superior to sisal." This is, so far, satisfactory. With regard to the prospects of the trade and the quality of article required, the firm remark. "We are far from looking for any collapse, there being good reason to believe the fibre can be produced at a less cost than any of its competitors, and consequently it is less likely to be ousted by them. As regards preparation, many mis* leading statements have been made and published. It must ba borne in mind that primarily and chiefly the trader's object is that of gain, and a miller making a greater profit upon half or moderately cleaned fibre at £81 to £23 can scarcely bo expected to spend time and labour in turning out an article costing him £8 to £10 more, for the sake of scour ing a price of £28. These are days of cheapness, aad this will no doubt be paramount with certain consumers." Messrs Ide and Christie further say :— " With respect to this fibre being available for textiles, we do not hesitate to state that as now imported it is useless. Doubtless the young leaves, carefully treated, as was done by the Maoris, would give a workable article, but we understand such fine and delicate manipulation is very costly, and would prove financially disastrous. The two or three trial shipments of that portion of the young leaves used by the Maoris met with little attention here, although they contained a fine fibre that might hare been applicable as a supplement to true flax. It must not be forgotten alio that real flaxes are pounds cheaper than they were some years ago* The chief desiderata in phormium are colour and cleanliness ; in point of stieogth there exists no complaint. Cotdage sel'sweU no less on account l of the latter merit than for ita appearance, but any dull or brownish material h»s |few takers . compared with the bright. yellow or white, even a'though of md fforeut cleatlinm" With reference to tow, they point out that real tow — that is all pure fibre— is worth £14 15s per ton, but for most of what comes to market, compose} of fibre, dust, and sweepings, £5 10b to £7 is full value. Great stress is laul on the importance of baling, in which the firm

consider thftre is much room for mV provement. ' • The particular weight Bhape. and measurement are of less importance than that one uniform standard s hould be adopted. There need be, no difficulty in boxing all exact weight of fibre, say 300, 400, or 5001bs for each bale, as is done in jute. As a probable result all interested would shate i^i sorue reduction of our manipulation charges at this end; percentage weiggt in lieu 6f every bale weight could safely be accepted, and in time colonial declarations t»jght even fee, paid upon without dissent. And it is.we wifely find two bales, under the same niark alike, the .variations extefidiiig from 50 to JiOOtt). The results from the existing procedure with regard to dumping are highly unsatiafactory. As matters now exist, one may find, btf 'presenting by clean: |>ill '-of laffißgf fttt S'o'o bale*,, iUi flfe 'fflj§f $&, dumped them and delivers a less number of packages, each consisting of two or three Of the QrigmaJ bales. Occasionally a duiap may hole! not ! only bales M o*ie ebttslgii^s mark, but also those of others- Tlie effect of such mixture is that dumps can-i not be accepted as a proper delivery, and this necessitates their bring un* dumped, thus consuming time and mboUi 4 ; arid leaving the original bales ;?fter so great a pressure very; poor 1 packages indeed. A simple remedy would be-each despatch to be dumped by shippers themselves, the dumps beings fully marked and numbered* care being taken not to mix two qualities iii one package The cblb'riial inlvoice seat H6me; could easily give ttekiis &i to ftdntehts of the dump, and the opening up occur 1 at place of destination. We are pleased to note the general regularity of laying hemp in the bales, l»ut the large KaukS' of bundles, although covering a multitude of sins, dd not favourably impress the expert." In conclusion, Messrs Ide, Christik & Co. say— " We would counsel attention to the\sta.tiatical position of tho world's two leading wnite' hemps, manila. and sieal. The former last year has diminished in production 92,000 bales; the latter increased by 20,000. As the globe's population yearly becomes larger, so will its need of fibre increase ; and we are disposed to think New. Zealand hemp will henceforth maintain a strong position in all markets, and be as well able as some of its competitors to stand the ups and downs all commodities are liable to encounter from time to time." We trust our flaxmillers will take heart of grace trom this opinion on the part of qualified experts, and will also profit by the praotical hints giveD above.