Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, OCT. 14, 1899. Flax.

Manawatu Herald, 14 October 1899, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, OCT. 14, 1899. Flax.

Everyone in this district has, naturally, very much interest in the flax industry, but they appear to heed only the present moment giving none to the future. Such a course of conduct will lead to a suspension of the business owing to the simple fact that there will be no green flax to dress unless immediate steps are taken to renew the supply. In writing about this we have been met with the cry that flax is but a temporary employment and th bottom of the boom may fill out. Whether it will or not we ea not positively say, and perhaps there are none who can, but we have certain facts to come and go on which must be considered, and to our mind they point to the con* elusion that the flax industry, with care and caution on the part of the millers and the government, may become a permanent one. If tbl. likelihood, the reasons for arriving at which we shall give, of the industry being permanent is admitted, then sooner certain steps are taken the better it will be for the people and the colony.

It is admitted that the Pbillipines have up to date ruled the fibre market with manilla, and the reason for its present shortage is laid, in an off-handed manner, simply to the war with the United States. But is this so ? We have been creditably informed that manilla has been chiefly produced in the Fhillipine Islands, not by the natives, who resemble most natives living in a tropibal climate, who are very lazy, but by Chinese, and the shortage is accounted by these Chinese having been sent back to their own country. The Americans are not friends to Asiatic labour and as it is but a question of time when they will become the actual rulers of these islands, we may take it for granted that the Chinese will find their occupation gone. Onr Americans cousins believe in combination? and trusts and the idea of ruling the fibre tnnrket of the world, as the control cf he ou'put rf nnni'la p'> ces them, are not likely to miss such a golden opportunity, and there will be a possibility of a restriction being placed on the export and an addition

made to the price. If this should be so we cau easily understand where our own flax comes in and matters certainly appear in a pleasant light. The other supposed competing fibre Sisal is right out of market, the very , low price that macilla Lll to a fe .v years ago made its production unprofitable, and as the government h£"? also withdrawn the large bonus it one time paid on its export, w^ learn that owners have been grubbing up the plant to put the land to a more profitable U3e.

Our own flax has found much favour in the London market, one reason being that it can be obtained in large quantities, and it is there fore mos't necessary that the Bupplv should bd kept up, as otherwise buyers will be searching other quarters and we may be lef c lamenting. .\fc the present time everyone 13 reaiarkably busy in destroying the green flax but not one is doing anything to aid its growth, and thus it behoves the people in this district to move in the matter as befits the inhabitants of the headquarters of the industry. The government have the Motoa estate for sale, or at least they assert they have a desire t) sell it, and if this is true there can be no better time for them to place it in the market, as all the low lying flax land, which the Assets Board declared was a stumbling block to sale of it would be readily purchased hy millers at prices equal to the v.luethe Board placed on the land 1 year ago ; and thd drier portions would be as greedily purchased by 'hose who desire to enter into the dairying business.

We however think that the question of a flax supply is a national question and one in which the government should take a proportionate ii?k with the private settler, as the employment of unskilled labour is one of the very great) advantagas ol the flax industry. The government to our mind, if they will sell the Alotoa estate, should place a low .•eserve upon certain areas on which no flax is now growing, but on which quantities at one time flourished, on the condition that the purchaser laid so much of it a year down in flax.

This matter we trust will receive the very earnest attention of our public men and to our mind the best course to pursue would be to lose no time in calliog a publ'c meeting to discuss this question and if the proposal were approved a deputation should be formed and the government interviewed before parlament is closed and the election turmoil ia on.