Flax.

Manawatu Herald, 30 January 1894, Page 2

Flax.

Afc lagfc the Government have been enabled to pay some little attention to the flax industry. The Time* reports that at a Cabinet meeting on Saturday Ministers had the matter under consideration, and settled the terms on which the money should be allocated.

It • Was resolved to offer two bonuses. One bonus of £1750 is to be for a machine or process of dressing New Zealand hemp, which shall be an improvement on the machines or processes now in use, and which shall after trial be found to materially reduce the cost of production, improve the product or increase the quantity of dressed fibre. The other bonus of £250 is to be offered for a process of utilising the waste products of the hemp

The conditions attached to the bonus of £1750 are: -All applicatio.ns must be sent addressad to the Minister for Agriculture, Wellingtou, and must reach him not later than the 80th August. 1894, each accompanied by a description of the machine or process ; particularly stating improvements on present machines or processes, and also the cost at which the machine or process can be supplied. 2. The applicants must be prepared to submit their machines or processes to examinafcien at such time and place as the Government may . direct. 8. The Government shall appoint a committee of three or more experts who shall state what machines or processes they deem worthy of consideration, and may direct that the whole or any of them be brought for trial to such place as they may think fit, the cost of so conveying the machines or appliances to be defrayed by the Government.

The following shall be the basis of the test : - The committee shall supply a sufficient and equal quantity of green hemp to each machine or process as a test. The committee shall take into consideration the time occupied by each machine or process in the operation, the cost oi labour and time required after the fibre has left the machine or process before it is ready for baling, the percentage of dressed fibre and tow produced by each machine or process, the cost of producing the same, the cost of the machine and the simplicity and durability of the working plant. .

In respect of the bonus of £250 for a process of utilising the waste products of the hemp, the first three conditions of the other bonus will apply. The committee shall supply a sufficient and equal quantity of the waste products to each process as a test.