Flax.

Manawatu Herald, 24 October 1893, Page 2

Flax.

A meeting of the Fiaxmillers' Association was held at Palmerston N. on Saturday last. Considerable business was done. The movements of the trade both in the Colony and abroad were reviewed and discussed. The cable advices before the meeting led lo the recommendation to urge upon the millers to exercise caution and still to keep down their output to the lowest possible point. The trade in America is at a stand still and lhe English trade little better. Stocks go on increasing in America. Received during lsfc 6 months 1898. Manilla ... 22,075 tons Sisal ... 28,658 „ NZ. Flax 7,805 „ London appears fco be the only market with any prospect for some time to come, but when the American markefc does move when the financial pressure is.. removed, a writer under date New York, August loth, says : — " A little later trade will be active. Tin re will be a scramble for goods for immediate delivery and the seller will nictate the piice." An important movement is taking place in New York — the formation of a Cordage Manufacturing Mutual Protective Association. On the 9th August lasfc the first meeting was held, attended by all fche leading spinners of America. The outline of their scheme is : — (1) Form an association under a constitution, each member to be under bond. (2) A Board of control of 5 members to be elected receiving salaries from the Association. (8) Thafc the Board of control shall be empowered and ifc shall be its duty to have cognisance of and to regulde the pr.ee and- the manner of purchase of all the fibre used by the manufacturers of the United States belonging to this Association. (4) The Board ehall fix the price of oi all manufactured products. (5) The Board shall have power to fine violators of the constitution. (6) The Board shall have power to judge of the quality of all raw materials and manufactured prodncts to ap* prove or condemn the same and require certain standards of quality of foreign. material. The Colonial Government of the Bahamas is so influenced with the importance of the sisal industry fchafc ifc has offered a bounty of one cent per pouud (or £4 13s 4d per ton) for all hemp exported until 1895. This has stimulated capitalists to, embark in tha industry and there are now thousands of acres secured for growing the fibre. * * nThe New Zealand Government have put upon the estimates, £2Q()0, for the fostering of the flax trade, but the world knows ifc not. Ifc will some day wake up to the folly of its treatment of this great home industry. A new Orleans paper La Picayune, August 10th, 1898, desctjjies a new machine for breaking and; cleaning Ramie,- the invention. o£V Wtr S. H. Allison, of that city, and A the property of the American Fibre Company, an organisation composed of some New Orleans level headed business men. The . machine is a small .iffai.r, 4 feet square, a conglomeration of roller ..belts and wheels too complicated for any successful description ; but when the power was turned on and the raw material supplied it was equal to the occasion. Ifc seized the stalks as they were fed to ifc, smashed them flat, broke the woody part into short pieces, knocked and shook them loose from the fibre and delivered them in one place and the freed fibre in another. The machine as the inventor says " does it own talking." This is the first" machine that has been successful in working the Ramie. * • * * l* ; :>-- ,~- t We want machinery to •" dress *.Eie phorium tenax, every miller sees and knows it; The waste of material, waste of labour and poor quality or the damage of a fine fibre that is caused by the crude machinery now in use is to the loss of the country and the grief of all in the trade.