Flax.

Manawatu Herald, 5 August 1902, Page 2

Flax.

“ New Zealand hemp has lost ground, because Manila hemp is to be obtained more freely. The Yankees have deluded themselves into the belief that they have settled the Philippine troubles, and, with the restoration of civil government, hemp exporting on a large scale has begun, and prices have receded as the supplies have increased.” Such is the announcement of a Wellington paper in its finance columns, dated 2nd August !! I What a pity it is that the editors of papers should so easily give misleading information with an air of knowledge. If, which the owners of the paper naturally desire, its readers placed any importance to its statements flaxmillecs might have lost many thousands of pounds, for there are plenty of buyers who would jump at the chance of disseminating such .statements. A week or two ago the flax market in Wellington fell, in sympathy with the hopes of the buyers, but fron information obtained by the Agricultural Department we ye re enabled to give figures proving that a rise was much more probable than a fall. The buyers tried for a day or two to keep the prices down but millers were firm in refusing to deal at low sums so that prices quickly rose. The paragraph wn have quoted was published at the end of last week, and it will therefore be news to the editor to know that from the. price of twenty pounds offered for flax on the first week in July, at the beginning of last week offers up to £25 per ton were made, therefore the statement that “ prices have receded " is all nonsense.

A few firms buy on commission only, but a great many buy to make the most they, can for themselves. A cablegram is generally received every Monday from the AgentGeneral, and some buyers secure an earlier cable on the Saturday previous. The last cablegram showed a rise in the London market, but a buyer was in Foxton on the Monday morning trying to deal. Millers should receive all applications with very much caution, as this buyer may have picked up a hundred pounds or so from getting up early in the morning. One miller informed us that he was visited and urged to sell and the buyer commenced with offering £2B per ton, and within half an hour finding the miller tough, rose the offer "to £25 per ton, unsuccessfully however. This points to a possible loss of £2 a ton to any miller who dealt hastily. The importance of the flax industry to the colony prompts every assistance being rendered to it, and the millers, and a newspaper should sift the value of any information given to it prior to publishing as there are people who are not above placing the position of the London market in an unfavourable view. In 1900 flax brought to the colony the sum of £382,182 and it is desirable that the producers of the manufactured fibre should reap the advantage of his labour and not the middle man.